UNIVERSITY    OF    CALIFORNIA    PUBLICATIONS 
AMERICAN    ARCHAEOLOGY   AND    ETHNOLOGY 

Vol.  4  No.  4 


INDIAN   MYTHS 

OF 

SOUTH   CENTRAL  CALIFORNIA 


BY 

A.  L.  KROEBER 


BERKELEY 

THE  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 

MAY,  1907 


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No.  3.     Shoshonean    Dialects    of   California,    by   A.    L.    Kroeber. 

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March,  1907 Price,       .35 

No.  2.  Navaho  Myths,  Prayers  and  Songs  with  Texts  and  Trans- 
lations, by  Washington  Matthews,  edited  by  Pliny  Earle  Goddard 
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Vol.  6.    The  Ethno-Geography   of   the   Pomo    Indians,   by   S.   A.    Barrett 
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VOL.  4 


UNIVERSITY   OF   CALIFORNIA    PUBLICATIONS 

AMERICAN    ARCHAEOLOGY  AND    ETHNOLOGY 


NO.  4. 


INDIAN  MYTHS  OF  SOUTH  CENTRAL 
CALIFORNIA. 


BY 

A.  L.  KEOEBEE. 


CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

I.  INTRODUCTION  169 

Mythology  of  the  Northern  Central  Region 170 

Maidu  171 

Wintun  175 

Yana  178 

Shasta-Achomawi  179 

Lutuami  „, 182 

Yuki  183 

Mythology  of  the  Southern  Central  Region  187 

Costanoan  191 

Miwok  191 

Yokuts  192 

Shoshonean  194 

General  Characterization  195 

Comparison  of  Mythologies  of  North  and  South  Central  California....  196 

II.  THE  MYTHS  199 

1.  Rumsien  Costanoan.     The  Beginning  of  the  World  199 

2.  Rumsien  Costanoan.     Coyote  200 

3.  Rumsien  Costanoan.     Coyote  and  the  Hummingbird  201 

4.  Rumsien  Costanoan.     Coyote  and  his  Wife  201 

5.  Rumsien  Costanoan.     Coyote  and  his  Children  201 

6.  Rumsien  Costanoan.     Coyote  with  a  Thorn  in  his  Eye  202 

7.  Pohonichi  Miwok.     The  Beginning  of  the  World  202 

8.  Pohonichi  Miwok.     The  Theft  of  Fire  202 

9.  Pohonichi  Miwok.     The  Origin  of  Death  203 

10.  Pohonichi  Miwok.     The  Bear  and  Deer  Children  203 

11.  Gashowu  Yokuts.     The  Beginning  of  the  World  204 

12.  Gashowu  Yokuts.     The  Origin  of  Death  205 

13.  Gashowu  Yokuts.  The  Owl  Doctor  ...  ..  205 


168 


University  of  California  Publications.   [AM.ARCH.ETH. 


14. 

15. 
16. 
17. 
18. 
19. 
20. 
21. 
22. 
23. 
24. 
25. 
26. 
27. 
28. 
29. 
30. 
31. 
32. 
33. 
34. 
35. 
36. 
37. 
38. 
39. 

40. 
41. 


PAGE 

Coyote,  the  Hawk,  and  the  Condor  205 

The  Beginning  of  the  World  209 

The  Theft  of  Fire  . 211 

The  Origin  of  Death  212 

The  Owners  of  the  Sun  212 

The  Eaee  of  the  Antelope  and  Deer  213 

The  Pleiades    213 

The  Wolf  and  the  Crane  214 

The  Bald  Eagle  and  the  Prairie  Falcon  214 

The  Thunder  Twins  215 

The  Visit  to  the  Dead  216 

The  Beginning  of  the  World  218 

The  Origin  of  Fire  219 

The  Eagle  and  the  Condor  219 

The  Eagle's  Son  220 

The  Prairie  Falcon  Fights  221 

The  Prairie  Falcon's  Wife 221 

The  Prairie  Falcon  Loses  223 

War  of  the  Foothill  and  Plains  People 223 

Thunder  and  Whirlwind  225 

Mikiti    225 

The  Visit  to  the  Dead  228 

The  Man  and  the  Owls.    A  Tale  228 

The  Beginning  of  the  World  229 

The  Origin  of  Death  231 

Coyote's  Adventures  and  the  Prairie  Fal- 
con 's  Blindness  231 

Yauelmani  Yokuts.     The  Prairie  Falcon  Loses  v 240 

Gitanemuk  Shoshonean.     The  Panther's  Children  and  Coyote....  243 


Gashowu  Yokuts. 
Truhoni  Yokuts. 
Truhohi  Yokuts. 
Truhohi  Yokuts. 
Tachi  Yokuts. 
Tachi  Yokuts. 
Tachi  Yokuts. 
Tachi  Yokuts. 
Tachi  Yokuts. 
Tachi  Yokuts. 
Tachi  Yokuts. 
Wukchamni  Yokuts. 
Yaudanchi  Yokuts. 
Yaudanchi  Yokuts. 
Yaudanchi  Yokuts. 
Yaudanchi  Yokuts. 
Yaudanchi  Yokuts. 
Yaudanchi  Yokuts. 
Yaudanchi  Yokuts. 
Yaudanchi  Yokuts. 
Yaudanchi  Yokuts. 
Yaudanchi  Yokuts. 
Yaudanchi  Yokuts. 
Yauelmani  Yokuts. 
Yauelmani  Yokuts. 
Yauelmani  Yokuts. 


III.    ABSTRACTS  ...  245 


VOL.  4]       Kroeber  —  Myths  of  South  Central  California.  169 


INDIAN   MYTHS   OF  SOUTH  CENTRAL 
CALIFORNIA. 


I.     INTRODUCTION. 

The  material  on  which  this  paper  is  based  was  collected  in 
the  years  1901  to  1906  as  part  of  the  work  of  the  Ethnological 
and  Archaeological  Survey  of  California  carried  on  by  the  Uni- 
versity of  California's  Department  of  Anthropology,  which  owes 
its  existence  and  continued  support  to  the  interest  of  Mrs.  Phoebe 
A.  Hearst. 

California  presents  three  principal  ethnological  divisions. 
First,  in  the  extreme  northwest  of  the  state,  bordering  on  the 
Pacific  Ocean  and  Oregon,  is  a  small  area  whose  native  culture 
is  fundamentally  isolated  to  an  unusual  degree.  Second,  in  the 
region  commonly  known  as  Southern  California,  that  is  to  say 
the  territory  south  of  Tehachapi  pass  in  the  interior  and  of  Point 
Concepcion  on  the  coast,  there  is  some  diversity  of  ethnological 
conditions,  but  the  area  as  a  whole  is  quite  distinctly  marked  off 
from  the  remainder  of  the  state.  Third,  there  is  the  remaining 
two-thirds  of  the  state,  an  area  which  has  been  called,  in  an 
ethnological  sense,  and  in  distinction  from  the  Northwestern  and 
Southern  areas,  the  Central  region.  This  central  region  con- 
sists of  what  is  ordinarily  known  as  northern  California  and 
central  California,  two  areas  of  about  equal  extent  lying  north 
and  south  of  the  latitude  of  San  Francisco.  Northern  California 
is  constituted  by  the  Sacramento  valley  and  the  adjacent  portions 
of  the  Sierra  Nevada  and  Coast  Range;  central  California,  by 
the  San  Joaquin  valley  and  the  parts  of  the  same  mountain 
ranges  contiguous  to  it.  The  Sacramento  valley  drains  south- 
ward, the  San  Joaquin  valley  northward.  The  drainage  of  both 
enters  the  ocean  at  San  Francisco;  so  that  the  selection  of  this 


170  University  of  California  Publications.   [AM.ARCH.ETH. 

city  to  mark  the  separation  of  the  northern  and  southern  halves 
of  the  Central  region  is  not  fortuitous. 

The  mythology  of  northwestern  California  is  still  rather  im- 
perfectly represented  by  collections  of  traditions,  but  its  general 
characteristics  have  been  discussed  in  a  paper  on  "Wishosk 
Myths"  in  a  recent  number  of  the  Journal  of  American  Folk- 
Lore.1  The  mythology  of  the  Central  region,  both  northern  and 
southern,  is  treated  in  the  present  paper.  That  of  the  northern 
half  is  comparatively  well  known  through  several  collections, 
and  will  be  summarized  here.  That  of  the  southern  half, — south 
central  California, — is  very  little  known,  but  is  illustrated  by  the 
new  material  which  constitutes  the  present  paper.  The  mythology 
of  Southern  California  is  quite  distinct  from  that  of  the  North- 
western and  Central  regions,  and  deserves  separate  discussion.2 


MYTHOLOGY  OF  THE  NORTHEEN  CENTRAL  REGION. 

There  are  two  principal  published  collections  of  myths  from 
the  Indians  of  the  northern  half  of  the  Central  region :  Dixon  's 
"Maidu  Myths"3  and  Curtm's  "Creation  Myths  of  Primitive 
America."*  These  two  works  illustrate  the  mythology  of  three 
linguistic  families,  the  Maidu,  Wintun,  and  Yana.  Smaller  pub- 
lications, together  with  the  various  material  available  to  the 
author  as  a  result  of  the  work  of  the  Ethnological  and  Archaeo- 
logical Survey  of  California,  serve  to  give  some  idea  of  the  tradi- 
tions of  this  whole  northern  Central  region.  The  most  general 
characteristics  of  this  mythology  include  a  marked  development 
of  true  creation  ideas,  with  the  participation  of  Coyote  in  a  role 
more  or  less  opposed  to  that  of  the  Creator ;  the  absence  of  migra- 
tion or  historical  traditions ;  the  importance  of  hero  and  destroyer 
myths ;  and  the  general  prevalence  of  animal  characters.  These 


1  XVIII,  85,  1905. 

•  See  Journ.  Am.  Folk-Lore,  XIX,  309,  1906. 

'Bull.  Am.  Mus.  Nat.  Hist.,  XVII,  33-118,  1902.  Compare  also  Some 
Coyote  Stories  from  the  Maidu  Indians  of  California,  Journ.  Am.  Folk- 
Lore,  XIII,  267-270,  1900;  System  and  Sequence  in  Maidu  Mythology,  ibid., 
XVI,  32-36,  1903;  and  Mythology,  333-342,  of  the  Northern  Maidu,  Bull. 
Am.  Mus.  Nat.  Hist.,  XVII,  119  seq. 

4  Boston,  1898. 


VOL.  4]      Kroeber. — Myths  of  South  Central  California.  171 

characteristics  as  compared  with  the  mythological  traits  of  North- 
western California  have  been  set  forth  in  the  before-mentioned 
paper  on  Wishosk  Myths.  It  remains  now  to  examine  and  sum- 
marize this  north  Central  material  in  order  to  compare  it  more 
fully  with  the  material  which  was  obtained  and  is  here  newly 
presented  from  the  south  Central  region. 


Maidu. 

With  a  few  exceptions,  the  Maidu  myths  given  by  Dr.  Dixon 
were  collected  at  two  points,  Genesee  in  Plumas  county  and  Chico 
in  Butte  county.  They  are  representative  therefore  of  two  of 
the  three  principal  divisions  of  the  Maidu,  the  northeastern  and 
the  northwestern.  In  the  northwestern  division  Dr.  Dixon  dis- 
tinguishes between  the  inhabitants  of  the  Sacramento  valley  and 
those  of  the  foothill  region.  Chico  being  situated  on  the  Sacra- 
mento river,  the  myths  obtained  there  would  seem  to  represent 
the  valley  half  of  this  division.  The  tales  from  the  northeastern 
and  northwestern  divisions  are  given  intermingled  by  Dr.  Dixon, 
though  always  with  indication  of  the  place  of  origin  of  each  story. 
In  spite  of  the  greater  incompleteness  of  the  Chico  or  northwest- 
ern series,  it  parallels  the  northeastern,  so  that  the  character 
common  to  both  is  perhaps  brought  out  more  strongly  by  con- 
sidering them  separately ;  and  this  will  Here  be  done. 

The  northeastern  Maidu  series,  though  the  fuller,  is  repre- 
sented by  a  creation  myth,  number  2,  that  is  either  incomplete 
or  less  typical  than  the  northwestern  one  given  by  Dr.  Dixon. 
The  principal  character,  Earth-namer  or  Earth-maker,  plays  the 
part  of  a  transformer  rather  than  of  an  actual  creator.  The  origin 
of  the  physical  world  is  also  not  accounted  for  by  the  myth.  The 
relation  of  the  transformer-creator  to  Coyote,  and  the  concep- 
tions displayed  as  to  the  destiny  of  man,  however,  affiliate  this 
northeastern  myth  with  the  northwestern  one.  A  version  of  this 
myth  by  Powers,  mentioned  below,  amplifies  the  present  one  by 
narrating  also  the  creation  of  men  from  sticks.1  The  next  most 


1  Elsewhere,  p.  336,  Dr.  Dixon  says  that  the  creator  placed  small  wooden 
figures  in  the  ground,  to  grow  into  men  at  the  end  of  the  mythic  era. 


172  University  of  California  Publications.   [AM.ARCH.ETH. 

important  northeastern  Maidu  tale,  that  of  the  conqueror,  num- 
ber 3,  tells  of  a  supernaturally  born  destroyer,  conqueror,  and 
avenger.  After  recounting  the  origin  of  this  hero,  the  myth  con- 
sists of  a  series  of  detached  incidents  of  adventure,  all  more  or 
less  of  the  same  nature.  Next  follows  the  account  of  the  theft 
of  fire  from  its  original  owner,  number  5.  The  story  of  Thunder 
and  his  daughter,  number  6,  has  for  its  essence  the  successful 
escape  of  the  hero  from  dangers  caused  by  his  father-in-law, 
whom  he  finally  overcomes.  This  type  of  myth  is  one  of  the 
most  favored,  not  only,  as  will  be  seen,  in  this  region  of  Cali- 
fornia, but  in  other  parts  of  North  America,  such  as  the  Plains 
and  the  North  Pacific  Coast.  The  story  of  the  Loon-woman, 
number  7,  is  apparently  confined  to  a  circumscribed  region  in 
northern  California,  but  within  this  is  quite  typical.  Its  funda- 
mental idea,  that  of  love  between  a  brother  and  sister,  has  equiva- 
lents in  the  mythology  of  most  tribes  on  the  continent  of  North 
America.  In  northern  California  Curtin  gives  this  particular 
Loon-woman  form  from  the  Yana,  and  Dr.  Dixon  mentions  it 
as  found  among  the  Achomawi.  It  occurs  also  among  the  Karok 
of  northwestern  California.  The  story  of  the  sun  and  moon, 
number  8,  first  part,  has  for  its  chief  episode  a  conflict  between 
the  sun  and  the  frog.  The  tale  of  the  bear  and  deer  children, 
number  9,  is,  as  noted  by  Dr.  Dixon,  a  great  favorite  in  northern 
California.  The  bear  kills  the  deer;  the  deer  children  kill  the 
bear  children,  flee,  and  finally  escape  the  pursuing  bear.  It  will 
be  seen  below  that  this  story  is  found  also  in  certain  parts  of 
south  central  California;  and  it  occurs  among  at  least  some  of 
the  tribes  of  northwestern  California.  Within  these  limits, 
although  frequently  connected  with  distinct  and  unrelated  epi- 
sodes, it  shows  everywhere  fundamentally  the  same  form.  More- 
over this  tale  is  one  of  the  few  characteristic  of  California  and 
found  also  outside  the  state.1  A  number  of  short  Coyote  stories 
given  by  Dr.  Dixon,  number  10,  l'7,  !6-,  are  similar  to  the 
Coyote  and  trickster  stories  found  in  a  generally  similar  form 
everywhere  in  North  America.  In  a  number  of  these  from  the 
northeastern  Maidu  there  is  a  contest  between  Coyote  and  an 

1  As  far  north  as  the  Kwakiutl  and  the  Thompson  River  Indians.     See 
the  parallels  given  by  Dixon,  p.  341. 


VOL.  4]      Kroeber. — Myths  of  South  Central  California.  173 

opponent.  Sometimes  Coyote  is  superior  and  sometimes  he  is 
worsted.  The  story  of  the  woman  who  falls  in  love  with  the 
butterflies,  number  12,  seems  quite  specialized.  The  tale  of  the 
Frog-woman  who  acts  the  impostor  for  another  woman,  number 
13,  rests  on  an  idea  found  elsewhere;  but  the  association  of  the 
frog  with  this  incident  is  quite  typical  of  northern  California. 
The  tale  of  the  lizard  and  the  grizzly  bear,  number  16,  is  an 
animal  tale  of  a  certain  simplicity.  The  grizzly  bear  having 
killed  all  the  lizard's  relatives  except  him  and  his  grandmother, 
the  lizard  in  revenge  first  reviles  and  then  kills  the  bear.  As  will 
be  seen,  this  story  is  paralleled  in  south  central  California.  The 
several  northeastern  Maidu  stories  of  the  fish-hawk  and  the  deer 
ticks,  of  the  skunk  and  the  beetle,  and  of  the  wolf  making  the 
snow  cold,  numbers  11,  17,  18,  are  comparatively  trivial  and 
humorous.  In  the  tale  of  Big-belly's  son,  number  21,  the  essential 
element  is  again  the  idea  of  the  revenging  hero.  In  addition,  the 
deceitful  Frog-woman  again  appears.  The  story  of  the  mountain 
lion,  who  deserts  his  wives,  whereupon  his  children  support  them- 
selves until  they  induce  their  father  to  return,  number  22,  has 
only  general  parallels  in  south  central  California  and  on  the 
Plains.  So  far  the  northeastern  Maidu  stories. 

The  northwestern  Maidu  myths  begin  with  a  fully  developed 
and  typical  creation  myth,  number  1.  In  the  beginning  everything 
is  water.  The  creator  descends  from  the  sky  and  makes  earth 
from  mud  for  which  the  turtle  has  dived.  He  brings  forth  the 
sun  and  moon  and  makes  the  stars.  He  makes  animals,  makes 
people,  and  vivifies  them.  He  fails,  owing  to  Coyote's  opposi- 
tion, in  making  men  immortal.  Coyote  suffers  in  the  death  of 
his  own  son  for  being  responsible  for  bringing  death  into  the 
world.  Men  come  to  speak  different  languages,  and  Kuksu,  the 
first  man,  sends  away  the  tribes  with  directions  as  to  their  life 
and  customs.  After  this  account  of  the  creation,  the  next  most 
important  northwestern  myth,  number  4,  is  an  exact  parallel, 
in  its  general  course,  to  the  northeastern  conqueror  story, 
although  the  individual  incidents  mostly  differ.  Several  Coyote 
tales,  number  10,  ^0-15,  are  given.  The  first  of  these  relates 
the  theft  of  fire;  the  next,  like  a  number  from  the  northeastern 
Maidu,  tells  of  contests  of  Coyote  in  which  he  is  sometimes 


174  University  of  California  Publications.   [AM.ARCH.ETH. 

superior  and  sometimes  inferior;  and  several  other  Coyote  tales 
develop  incidents  of  the  well-known  and  wide-spread  type  of 
unsuccessful  imitation.  The  story  of  the  devouring  head,  number 
14,  is  found  in  some  form,  and  in  a  great  many  different  connec- 
tions, over  the  larger  part  of  North  America.  The  particular 
form  that  occurs  here  appears  also  among  the  neighboring  Yana. 
The  story  of  the  stolen  brother  who  was  taken  to  the  sky  and 
finally  recovered,  number  15,  has  a  number  of  parallels  in  north- 
ern California.  Curtin  gives  a  Wintun  version  and  another  was 
obtained  by  the  author  among  the  Salmon  river  Shasta.  Similar 
mythical  ideas,  sometimes  with  the  visit  to  the  sky  forming  the 
principal  feature  and  sometimes  with  this  omitted,  are  found 
farther  north  on  the  Pacific  Coast  and  to  the  east.  The  northwest- 
ern story  of  Thunder  and  his  daughter,  number  19,  is  perhaps 
a  modified  form  of  the  evil  father-in-law  tale.  At  any  rate  it 
connects  with  it  in  being  similar  to  the  northeastern  story  of 
Thunder  and  his  daughter,  which  belongs  clearly  to  this  type. 

Several  Maidu  myths  given  by  Stephen  Powers,1  while  not 
forming  a  systematic  collection,  supplement  Dr.  Dixon's  in  a 
very  satisfactory  fashion.  Powers  distinguishes  between  the 
Maidu,  corresponding  to  Dixon's  northeastern  and  northwestern 
Maidu,  and  the  Nishinam,  who  are  Dixon's  southern  Maidu. 
From  the  former  he  gives  the  Kodoyanpe  or  creator  and  Onkoito 
or  conqueror  myths,  in  versions  agreeing  closely  with  Dixon's 
northeastern  forms  and  in  part  amplifying  them.  A  story  of 
which  the  wild-cat  is  the  hero,  an  animal  myth  of  a  younger 
brother2  who  succeeds  through  magical  power,  is  not  given  by  Dr. 
Dixon.  Powers'  southern  Maidu  myths  are  particularly  valu- 
able. One  tells  of  the  causation  of  death  and  cremation  by 
Coyote,  who  argues  against  a  return  of  man  to  life  and  prevails. 
When  his  own  son  is  killed  by  a  rattlesnake,  Coyote  is  unable 
to  undo  his  decision.  In  another  story  Coyote  appears  as  the 
destroyer,  by  deceit,  of  a  cannibal.  In  another  tale,  the  theft 
of  fire  which  is  accomplished  by  the  lizard  results  in  a  general 
conflagration.  The  bear  and  deer  story  is  another  one  given. 

1  Tribes  of  California,  Contrib.  N.  Am.  Ethn.  Ill :  northern  Maidu,  290, 
292,  294;  southern  Maidu,  339,  341,  341,  342,  343,  344. 

2  Related  to  the  myth  about  the  wild-cat  and  panther 's  magical  control  of 
the  deer,  found  among  the  Shasta  (Burns),  Yuki,  and  Lassik  (Goddard). 


VOL.  4]       Kroeber. — Myths  of  South  Central  California.  175 

That  of  Aitut  and  Yototowi  is  interesting  because  it  is  a  version 
of  the  tale  of  the  visit  to  the  dead  characteristic  of  the  San 
Joaquin  valley.  This  is  its  northernmost  occurrence  known. 
This  circumstance,  and  the  fact  that  no  creation  myth  is  given  by 
Powers,  point  to  some  mythological  relationship  of  the  southern 
Maidu  with  their  neighbors  the  Miwok,  corroborating  Dr.  Dixon  's 
statements  as  to  their  culture  in  general. 

Wintun. 

Curtin's  "Creation  Myths  of  Primitive  America"  contains 
twenty-two  tales,  the  first  nine  from  the  Wintun,  the  last  thirteen 
from  the  Yana.  The  last  of  the  Wintun  stories  is  not  a  myth. 
The  Wintun  tales  are  told  at  great  length,  and  therefore  more 
than  make  up  for  their  small  number.  They  are  all  from  the 
northern  Wintun,  apparently  not  far  from  the  Shasta  region; 
and  as  the  Wintun  family  has  a  long  narrow  north  and  south 
distribution,  Curtin's  myths  must  not  be  regarded  as  typical  of 
the  entire  stock.1  There  is  every  reason  to  believe  from  the  gen- 
eral cultural  relations  that  the  mythology  of  the  southernmost 
Wintun  was  nearer  to  that  of  the  Porno,  and  perhaps  other  adja- 
cent groups,  than  to  the  northern  Wintun  material  given  by 
Curtin.  In  their  form  also  Curtin's  Wintun  myths  cannot  be 
considered  as  typical  of  the  character  of  the  mythology  of  a  large 
area  any  more  than  in  their  locality.  It  would  appear  from  their 
general  similarity  that  they  may  all  have  been  obtained  from  a 
single  individual  of  unusual  power,  not  only  of  narration,  but 
of  mythological  combination ;  and  it  is  likely  that  the  same  tales 
as  told  by  the  majority  of  the  Wintun  of  the  region  may  have 
been  much  less  developed  both  in  detail  and  in  arrangement. 
Finally,  the  systematization  of  this  mythology  as  set  forth  in 
the  author's  introduction  and  notes  must  be  kept  carefully  apart 
from  the  systematization  actually  present  in  the  myths  them- 
selves. 


1  It  appears  accordingly  that  while  the  three  stocks  illustrated  by  the  col- 
lections of  Curtin  and  Dixon  held  the  whole  Sacramento  valley  region,  the 
territory  actually  represented  by  the  myths  given  in  these  collections  com- 
prises only  a  comparatively  small  part  of  the  region,  in  a  restricted  area  in 
northeastern  California.  This  is  a  fact  which  must  not  be  lost  sight  of  in 
making  comparisons. 


176  University  of  California  Publications.   [AM.ARCH.ETH. 

The  northern  Wintun  conception  of  Olelbis,  "sitting  in  the 
above  "  or  ' '  he  who  is  in  heaven, ' '  shows  a  developed  and  a  lofty 
conception  of  a  creator.  At  the  same  time  it  is  very  noticeable 
that  creation  takes  place  not  so  much  by  actual  making  or  calling 
into  existence  on  the  part  of  the  supreme  deity,  as  is  the  case 
among  the  Maidu,  as  by  the  origination  of  objects  and  faculties 
from  a  number  of  individual  beings  distinct  from  him  and 
already  endowed  with  certain  powers.  The  water  woman  is  the 
originator  of  water,  the  child  of  the  fire-drill  of  fire,  Old-man 
white-oak-acorn  of  oak  trees,  the  cloud  dogs  of  clouds.  Similar 
characters  are  Wind,  and  Katkatchila,  the  "swift,"  from  whom 
flint  was  obtained  for  the  people  of  the  world.  The  principal 
incidents  of  the  long  Olelbis  myth,  given  in  sequence  rather  than 
in  the  order  of  Curtin,  are  as  follows : 

Olelbis  makes  a  great  sweat-house  in  the  sky  with  the  help 
of  two  old  women  whom  he  calls  his  grandmothers.  People  steal 
flint  from  its  possessor.  In  revenge  he  causes  a  world  fire. 
Olelbis  has  Water-woman  put  it  out.  The  earth  being  then  bare, 
earth  is  brought  on  it  and  the  mountains  are  made.  This  is  done 
by  order  of  Olelbis ;  but  it  is  to  be  noted  that  the  earth  with  which 
the  world  is  covered,  is  not  made  by  him  but  is  found  beyond 
the  confines  of  the  human  world.  Fire  is  obtained  from  the  fire 
people  by  theft,  though  without  the  pursuit  usually  narrated  in 
American  myths  of  the  theft  of  fire.  Then  rivers  are  made  by 
Olelbis.  The  fish  in  them,  however,  spring  from  one  fish  left 
in  a  pool  of  water  after  the  world  fire  and  world  flood.  Then 
oaks  are  made  through  the  power  of  Old-man-acorn.  Deer,  elk, 
shells,  and  other  objects  entering  into  Indian  life  are  made  from 
portions  of  the  body  of  Wokwuk,  a  mythical  bird  with  Olelbis. 
The  cloud  dogs  are  caught  by  Olelbis  and  the  clouds  made  of 
their  skins.  Then  Olelbis  sends  off  the  various  people  of  the 
world  of  that  time,  each  with  his  specific  qualities,  to  turn  into 
animals  and  inanimate  objects. 

After  this  creation  myth  are  told  the  following  stories. 

In  the  second,  Water-woman,  here  the  wife  of  Olelbis,  is 
carried  off  by  Wind.  Water  is  reobtained  from  her. 

In  the  third  story,  a  woman  called  Norwan,  of  supernatural 
origin,  is  married,  and,  upon  her  deserting  her  husband  at  a 


VOL.  4]       Kroeber. — Myths  of  South  Central  California.  177 

dance,  a  battle  occurs.  The  remainder  of  this  long  tale  is  filled 
with  accounts  of  fighting  of  an  epic  character,  three  battles  tak- 
ing place  altogether. 

The  fourth  story,  that  of  Tulchuherris,  tells  of  the  hero  who 
is  dug  from  the  ground,  a  common  conception  both  in  northwest- 
ern and  central  California  as  well  as  elsewhere  in  America.  In 
body,  this  myth  belongs  to  the  class  telling  of  the  successful 
overcoming  by  the  hero  of  his  evil  father-in-law,  who  in  this  case 
is  the  sun.  A  number  of  the  incidents,  such  as  that  of  the 
swinging  on  a  tree  with  the  object  of  dashing  the  opponent 
against  the  sky,  are  favorites  in  north  central  as  well  as  north- 
western California. 

The  fifth  story,  that  of  Coyote  and  the  buzzards,  tells  of  the 
origin  of  death.  Its  form  is  quite  philosophical,  but  the  ideas 
it  embodies  are  found  throughout  central  California,  and  almost 
invariably  associated  with  Coyote. 

The  sixth  tale,  that  of  Hawt,  is  one  of  character  and  super- 
natural powers  rather  than  of  plot  or  incidents.  The  hero  is 
the  lamprey  eel. 

The  seventh  story,  that  of  Norwanchakus  and  Keriha,  con- 
tains three  principal  and  really  distinct  portions.  The  first  nar- 
rates the  theft  of  daylight,  an  idea  found  also  among  the  coast 
Indians  of  northern  California.  The  second  is  a  contest  of 
Keriha  with  the  wasp.  In  the  third  part  of  the  tale,  Keriha,  the 
younger  brother,  is  stolen.  His  location  is  learned  from  the  sun. 
The  people  then  climb  to  the  sky  and  he  is  rescued.  This  mythical 
idea  has  been  mentioned  in  connection  with  the  northwestern 
Maidu. 

The  eighth  myth,  that  of  wolf  and  Coyote,  is  again  one  of 
character  rather  than  of  plot.  Coyote  is  inferior  to  the  being 
whom  he  imitates.  The  making  of  persons  from  sticks,  a  com- 
mon California  conception,  is  also  told. 

A  southern  Wintun  myth  from  middle  Cache  creek  given 
by  Stephen  Powers1  tells  of  a  world  conflagration  started  in 
anger,  of  its  burning  southward,  of  its  extinction  by  Coyote,  who 
thereupon  also  renews  water,  and  of  his  creation  of  people  from 
sticks.  There  is  sufficient  here  to  show  that  the  northern  Wintun 

1  Op.  cit.,  227. 


178  University  of  California  Publications.   [AM.ARCH.ETH. 

Olelbis  myth  is  not  without  some  parallels  in  the  southern  part 
of  the  family;  but  the  creator  himself  is  replaced  by  Coyote. 
Dixon1  mentions  that  among  the  southern  Wintun  there  is  little 
antithesis  between  creator  and  Coyote  in  the  creation  myth,  and 
that  the  story  of  the  theft  of  fire  resembles  the  northern  Maidu 
version  more  closely  than  does  the  northern  Wintun  one. 

Yana. 

Curtin's  Yana  myths,  though  more  numerous  than  his  Win- 
tun  ones,  are  less  distinctive.  They  represent  evidently  only  part 
of  the  mythology  of  the  tribe,  for  no  creation  myth  is  given. 
The  last  myth  in  the  book  has  as  its  concluding  incident  the 
making  of  man  from  sticks,  but  only  as  an  episode,  and  undoubt- 
edly does  not  adequately  represent  the  ideas  of  the  Yana  as  to 
the  creation.  Most  of  the  thirteen  stories,  and  a  great  many  of 
the  episodes  contained  in  them,  have  parallels  among  the  Maidu 
or  Wintun  or  both.  The  sixteenth  story  tells  of  the  theft  of  fire. 
The  contest  of  the  hero  with  his  father-in-law,  and  his  final  vic- 
tory over  him,  are  told  in  two  stories,  the  tenth  and  twentieth. 
The  eleventh  story,  that  of  the  Hakas  and  the  Tennas,  the  flints 
and  the  grizzly  bears,  and  the  twelfth,  that  of  Ilhataina,  tell  of 
the  revenge  taken  by  the  hero  upon  those  who  have  destroyed 
his  people.  The  hero  of  the  latter  tale  has  his  origin  by  being 
dug  out  of  the  ground.  The  thirteenth  tale,  that  of  Hitchinna,  is 
the  familiar  one  of  the  rolling  devouring  head.  The  nineteenth, 
called  that  of  the  two  sisters,  is  the  loon-woman  story  that  has 
been  commented  upon  in  connection  with  the  Maidu.  The  inci- 
dent of  the  frog-women  acting  as  substitutes  or  imposters  is 
found  in  the  fifteenth  story,  that  of  Sukonia's  wives.  The 
remaining  tales  have  little  specific  character,  but  are  stories  of 
fighting,  fleeing  from  monsters,  overcoming  of  dangers,  and  vic- 
tory in  gambling,  with  the  supernatural  and  magical  element 
strongly  developed  and  at  times  rather  extravagant.  While  the 
Yana  material  given  by  Curtin  is  not  sufficient  to  allow  of  a 
statement  of  what  elements  that  are  found  among  neighboring 
tribes  their  mythology  lacks ;  yet  it  is  evident,  if  this  material  is 

1  Bull.  Am.  Mus.  Nat.  Hist.  XVII,  339,  340. 


VOL.  4]      Kroeber.— Myths  of  South  Central  California.  179 

at  all  typical,  that  the  Yana  mythology  contains  probably  no 
very  important  ideas  that  are  specific  to  it  and  foreign  to  the 
Wintun  and  Maidu. 

Dr.  Dixon  has  collected  myths  among  the  Yana,  but  they  are 
as  yet  unpublished.  In  the  course  of  a  general  discussion  he 
mentions  the  general  close  similarity  between  Yana,  Achomawi, 
and  northern  Maidu  mythologies.  In  regard  to  the  creation — 
where  Curtin's  published  material  is  deficient — he  states  that 
the  Yana  told  of  a  primeval  water,  and  of  constant  differ- 
ence of  purpose  between  the  creator  and  Coyote.  The  Yana 
story  of  the  theft  of  fire  as  outlined  by  Dr.  Dixon  differs  from 
that  told  by  Curtin.  It  is  discovered  mainly  by  the  lizard,  and 
the  pursuers  are  hindered  by  having  their  dresses  cut  while 
asleep.  According  to  Dr.  Dixon,  the  bear  and  deer  children 
story  also  belongs  to  the  Yana.1 

Shasta-Achomawi. 

The  mythology  of  the  Achomawi  or  Pit  River  Indians,  north 
of  the  Maidu,  is  nearly  unknown.  Powers2  has  a  paragraph  on 
their  creation  myth.  Coyote  made  the  earth  by  scratching  it 
out  of  nothingness.  The  eagle  continued  and  made  the  moun- 
tains. The  eagle's  feathers  turned  to  vegetation — an  idea  with 
Wintun  and  Yuki  parallels.  Coyote  and  the  fox  made  men; 
the  former,  after  a  dispute,  prevailed  and  caused  permanent 
death.  Coyote  stole  fire.  Dr.  Dixon3  states  that  the  Achomawi 
tell  the  creation  of  men  much  like  the  northwestern  Maidu: 
Coyote  attempts  to  imitate  the  creator  and  makes  deformed  peo- 
ple through  not  restraining  himself.  Elsewhere4  he  says  that 
the  Achomawi  account  of  the  beginning  of  the  world  is  similar 
to  the  Maidu  one,  but  carries  the  origin  back  farther.  A  cloud 
forms  and  grows  into  the  silver-gray  fox,  the  creator.  Then 
Coyote  is  formed.  By  thought  the  creator  makes  a  canoe  in 
which  the  two  remain  until  they  make  the  world.  The  antithesis 
between  them  is  similar  to  that  in  Maidu  creation  myths.  Alto- 
gether, according  to  Dr.  Dixon,  the  mythology  of  the  Achomawi 

1  Op.  tit.,  339,  340,  42. 

2  Op.  cit.,  273. 

1  Op.  tit.,  42,  71. 
4  Ibid.,  335. 


180  University  of  California  Publications.   [AM.AKCH.ETH. 

and  that  of  the  northern  Maidu  and  the  Yana  is  much  alike.  A 
special  form  of  the  theft  of  fire  and  of  the  loon-woman  myth  has 
been  found  so  far  only  among  them;  and  in  other  tales,  such 
as  those  of  the  bear  and  deer  children,  the  sisters  sent  to  marry 
the  stranger,  and  the  Coyote  stories,  there  is  also  close  similarity. 

Of  the  mythology  of  the  Shasta,  Dr.  Dixon  says1  that  the 
creation  myth  is  brief,  undeveloped,  and  of  a  different  type  from 
that  of  the  Maidu,  Coyote  being  the  creator  as  well  as  the 
trickster.  He  mentions  a  story  of  the  theft  of  fire  different  from 
the  characteristic  version  of  the  northern  Maidu,  Yana,  and 
Achomawi,  and  says  that  the  Shasta  also  tell  the  Loon- woman 
myth  in  a  modified  form. 

Half  a  dozen  Scott 's  Valley  Shasta  myths  told  by  L.  M.  Burns2 
deal  mostly  with  Coyote  and  contain  no  approach  to  a  creation 
myth.  One  tells  of  the  theft  of  fire  by  Coyote.  In  the  others  he 
is  a  trickster,  usually  coming  out  inferior.  One  tale  is  a  version 
of  the  imposter  frog-woman.  The  last  of  the  myths  has  a  dug- 
from-the-ground  hero  and  belongs  to  the  evil  father-in-law  type, 
with  numerous  analogues  in  northern  California.  There  is  also 
a  version  of  the  story  of  the  actions  of  panther,  wild-cat,  and 
Coyote  in  connection  with  the  supernatural  control  of  the  deer. 
This  myth  having  been  found  also  among  the  Maidu,  Yuki,  and 
Lassik,  appears  to  be  of  general  distribution  in  the  northern  Cen- 
tral region.  The  Shasta  form  agrees  with  the  Maidu  in  making 
the  wild-cat  the  recoverer  of  a  magic  ball  controlling  deer,  where- 
as in  the  Yuki  and  Lassik  versions  he  causes  the  loss  of  the  power 
by  yielding  to  Coyote. 

Several  Shasta  myths  collected  by  the  author  on  Salmon  river3 
also  include  no  creation  myth  or  mention  of  a  creator.  One  of 
them  gives  the  origin  of  death.  The  cricket's  child  dying, 
Coyote  refuses  to  let  it  live  again.  Later  his  own  child  dies. 
Fire  is  stolen  from  across  the  ocean  by  the  blue  jay,  robin,  turtle, 
and  ground-squirrel.  They  bring  with  them  also  acorns.  There 

1  Op.  tit.,  339. 

2  Land  of  Sunshine,  XIV,  131,  132,  223,  310,  312,  397. 

3  From  a  half-breed  informant,  whose  maternal   grandfather  was  from 
Salmon  river,  her  maternal  grandmother  from  Scott's  Valley.     She  lives  at 
Forks  of  Salmon.     The  places  mentioned  in  the  myths  are  mostly  on  the 
Salmon  and  its  two  main  forks;  one  is  on  New  river,  two  on  the  Klamath 
in  Karok  territory,  none  in  Scott's  Valley. 


VOL.  4]       Kroeber. — Myths  of  South  Central  California.  181 

are  northwestern  resemblances  in  this  myth.  A  fragment  which 
tells  how  Coyote  tried  to  make  the  white  deer-skin  dance  near 
Sawyer's  Bar  on  the  north  fork  of  the  Salmon,  but  found  the 
place  too  narrow;  then  tried  Forks  of  Salmon;  and  finally  the 
mouth  of  the  Salmon,  where  the  Karok  actually  make  the  cere- 
mony; is  distinctly  northwestern  in  spirit.  So  is  a  story  of  a 
hero — from  Karok  territory — who  was  rejected  by  two  sisters 
when  he  appeared  covered  with  sores,  but  was  accepted  when 
the  sores  changed  to  woodpecker  scalps,  and  who  played  shinny 
with  the  ten  thunder  brothers  and  beat  them.  A  tale  of  a  girl 
who  turns  to  a  devouring  bear  has  many  parallels  in  the  interior 
of  the  continent.  A  story  of  the  evil  father-in-law,  in  this  case 
the  sun,  and  one  of  the  brother  who  was  stolen  and  recovered 
from  the  sky,  are  of  north  central  California  type,  and  of  con- 
siderable similarity  to  Curtin's  northern  Wintun  versions.  Alto- 
gether the  Salmon  Shasta  seem  to  have  been  under  greater  Karok 
influence  than  the  main  body  of  the  stock  farther  east;  this  is 
natural,  as  they  lived  only  a  few  miles  from  some  of  the  most 
important  places  held  by  the  Karok. 

The  absence  of  a  true  creator  from  Shasta  mythology  must 
not  be  regarded  as  necessarily  an  approximation  to  northwestern 
beliefs,  for  there  are  as  yet  no  evidences  of  any  Shasta  equiva- 
lents of  the  characteristic  northwestern  culture-heroes.1 


1  Since  the  above  was  written  Dr.  Dixon  has  published  in  the  American 
Anthropologist,  n.  s.  VII,  607-12,  1905,  an  article  discussing  the  mythology  of 
the  Shasta-Achomawi  and  its  relation  to  the  traditions  of  the  neighboring 
peoples.  No  myths  are  given  in  detail,  but  the  entire  mythology  is  concisely 
summarized.  Dr.  Dixon  finds  considerable  difference  between  the  traditions 
of  the  Shasta  and  those  of  the  Achomawi.  He  gives  the  creation  of  the 
latter  much  as  it  has  been  summarized  above,  except  that  Coyote  is  here  said 
to  have  appeared  from  a  cloud  before  the  creator,  the  silver  fox,  arose  from 
a  fog.  When  the  boat  in  which  the  two  are  drifting  becomes  worn  out,  the 
fox,  while  Coyote  is  asleep,  combs  out  from  his  own  body  a  mass  of  hair, 
forms  it  into  a  flat  disk,  sets  it  floating  on  the  water,  and  on  it  places  what 
are  to  be  trees  and  plants.  (This  somewhat  suggests  the  Yuki  creation  of 
the  world  from  a  basket.)  After  the  making  of  mankind,  the  struggle  be- 
tween the  creator  and  Coyote  begins,  Coyote  wishing  the  conditions  of  life 
to  be  hard.  He  is  successful,  and  death  is  brought  into  the  world,  although 
his  own  child  is  the  first  to  die.  The  creator  tries  in  vain  to  destroy  Coyote. 
At  this  point  the  loon-woman  myth  is  introduced.  The  animals,  in  trying  to 
escape  the  loon,  fall  into  the  fire  kindled  by  her,  and  are  burned  to  death. 
The  fox,  however,  restores  their  hearts  to  life  and  gives  to  each  animal  its 
peculiar  characteristics. 

Among  the  Shasta  the  dualism  between  the  creator  and  Coyote,  which, 
although  more  philosophical,  is  on  the  whole  less  developed  among  the  Acho- 
mawi than  among  the  Maidu,  is  entirely  lacking.  The  Achomawi  creation 


182  University  of  California  Publications.   [AM.ARCH.ETH. 

Lutuami. 

The  myths  of  the  Lutuami,  the  Klamath  Lake  and  Modoc 
Indians,  who  were  on  the  whole  inhabitants  of  Oregon  rather 
than  of  California,  are  in  part  recorded  in  Gatschet's  Klamath 
Indians  of  Southwestern  Oregon;1  but  a  much  larger  body  of 
material  that  has  been  secured  is  still  unpublished.2  Lutuami 
mythology  is  quite  unlike  that  of  central  California.  The  bear 
and  deer  children  story  occurs,  but  the  general  character  of  the 
mythology  is  much  more  reminiscent  of  the  North  Pacific  Coast 
and  the  interior  of  North  America,  and  in  part  directly  of  north- 


episodes  are  also  wanting  among  the  Shasta,  and  there  is  no  clear  idea  of  a 
creator  or  origin.  The  most  that  has  been  found  is  a  confused  account  of  a 
flood.  After  the  subsidence  of  the  water  the  world  is  largely  shaped  by  the 
eagle,  who  sends  a  boy  and  a  girl  who  marry  and  originate  the  human  race. 
There  is  little  trace  of  the  making  of  animals  or  anything  else.  Coyote  as- 
sumes a  very  important  role,  in  that  he  names  the  animals.  Although  he  is 
responsible  for  the  introduction  of  death  into  the  world,  the  story  is  told 
differently  than  by  the  Achomawi  or  Maidu.  The  systematic  orderly  char- 
acter of  the  mythology,  which  the  Achomawi  share  with  the  Maidu,  is  en- 
tirely lacking  among  the  Shasta,  and  creation  ideas  are  as  absent  as  in 
Northwestern  California. 

In  the  myths  not  dealing  with  creation,  the  Shasta  and  the  Achomawi  are 
more  similar  to  one  another.  Both  possess  many  Coyote  stories,  the  major 
part  of  which  they  have  in  common.  The  Achomawi,  however,  share  a  num- 
ber of  episodes  in  such  stories  with  the  Maidu  and  not  with  the  Shasta.  On 
the  other  hand,  Coyote  in  a  number  of  these  tales  among  the  Shasta  is  less 
purely  a  trickster  than  among  the  Achomawi,  as  he  figures  several  times  as 
an  important  character,  a  benefactor  of  mankind,  and  a  destroyer  of  mons- 
ters. (The  same  evidently  holds  true  among  the  Shasta  as  among  other  tribes 
where  Coyote  alone  takes  the  place  of  the  contrasting  personages  of  the  cre- 
ator and  himself,  as  among  the  Porno,  Southern  Wintun,  and  Miwok:  while 
he  does  not  lose  his  tricky  nature,  he  assumes  at  least  certain  of  the  more 
dignified  attributes  of  the  creator  or  culture-hero.) 

Among  miscellaneous  tales  the  Achomawi  possess  the  story  of  the  loon- 
woman,  the  theft  of  fire,  the  two  girls  sent  in  search  of  a  husband,  the 
struggle  between  the  lizard  and  the  grizzly-bear,  and  the  lost  brother.  In 
the  course  of  the  latter  the  mice  ascend  to  the  sky  to  seek  information  from 
the  sun  regarding  the  lost  brother.  Among  the  Shasta  a  number  of  such 
stories  appear.  That  of  the  lost  brother  assumes  a  different  form,  being  ap- 
parently part  of  a  series  of  tales  relating  to  two  culture-hero  brothers,  one 
of  whom  wanders  about  the  country  killing  monsters.  The  surviving 
brother's  quest  is  more  elaborately  described,  and  the  ascent  to  the  sky  is 
also  expanded.  A  number  of  incidents  in  this  story  recall  the  type  of  tales 
characteristic  of  the  region  of  western  Washington.  Other  incidents  in  this 
and  other  stories  also  suggest  connection  with  the  Puget  Sound  region. 
There  are  some  Wintun  resemblances.  There  is  but  little  which  directly  re- 
sembles the  mythology  of  the  Northwestern  area,  although  the  Shasta  are  in 
immediate  contact  with  it. 

1  Contrib.  to  N.  A.  Ethn.,  II,  1890,  part  1,  especially  pp.  94  seq.,  Ixxix  seq. 

2  Ibid.,  Ixxviii :    ' '  Jeremiah  Curtin     .     .     .     obtained  over  one  hundred 
Modoc  myths  in  1883  and  1884,  now  forming  part  of  the  unpublished  col- 
lection of  the  Bureau  of  Ethnology. ' ' 


VOL.  4]       Kroeber. — Myths  of  South  Central  California.  183 

western  California.  There  is  a  creator,  K'mukamtch,  old  man, 
but  he  is  not  the  "good"  creator  of  the  Maidu,  Wintun,  Yuki, 
and  Wishosk;  he  is  deceitful,  with  the  character  of  the  typical 
culture-hero-trickster.  His  relation  to  his  son  Aishish,  including 
a  number  of  specific  incidents,  can  be  paralleled  among  the 
Indians  of  northwestern  California,  who,  it  should  be  remem- 
bered, live  on  the  lower  drainage  of  the  river  system  of  which 
the  Lutuami  hold  the  headwaters.  The  central  California  oppo- 
sition between  creator  and  Coyote  is  lacking,  although  Coyote 
occurs  in  many  typical  "Coyote-stories."  The  reduction  by 
K'mukamtch  of  the  female  Coyote's  twenty-four,  and  therefore 
unendurable,  moons  to  twelve,  shows  perhaps  a  faint  approxima- 
tion to  this  antithesis.  The  origin  of  death  from  the  wish  of 
the  mole  and  an  insect,  Coyote  not  being  concerned  in  the  matter, 
has  parallels  in  northwestern  California.  Next  to  the  K'mu- 
kamtch cycle,  the  most  important  series  of  Lutuami  myths 
appears  to  be  that  of  Marten,  sometimes  identified  with  K'mu- 
kamtch, and  his  younger  brother  Weasel.  Marten  is  a  trickster 
and  destroyer;  the  point  of  his  achievements  is  not  so  much 
the  benefit  resulting  to  the  world  from  his  riddance  of  it  from 
evils,  as  the  means  of  his  superiority  over  them.  He  therefore 
corresponds  more  to  the  Manabozho  and  North  Pacific  Coast 
culture-hero  type  than  to  the  Maidu  Conqueror.  Even  in  details, 
— the  creation  of  man,  the  thunders,  the  firing  of  the  sky,  the 
failures  of  the  trickster, — there  are  few  Central  Californian 
resemblances,  but  a  number  to  the  other  culture  regions  men- 
tioned. While  the  known  Lutuami  myth  material  is  unfortu- 
nately very  limited  as  compared  with  that  which  has  been  col- 
lected, it  is  sufficient  to  show  that  mythologically  these  people 
stood  outside  the  Central  Californian  cultural  type. 

Yuki. 

The  Yuki  are  the  first  northern  California  people,  of  those 
so  far  discussed,  to  inhabit  the  Coast  Range  instead  of  the  Sacra- 
mento valley  or  Sierra  Nevada  region.  No  account  of  their 
mythology  has  been  published,  but  a  summary  is  here  given  from 
material  collected  by  the  author.  The  creator  and  supreme  deity 


184  University  of  California  Publications.    [AM.ARCH.ETH. 

of  the  Yuki  is  Taikomol,  ' '  He  who  goes  alone. ' '  The  usual  anti- 
thetical relation  of  Coyote  to  the  creator  occurs,  although  on 
the  whole  Coyote's  part  is  supplementary,  rather  than  opposed, 
to  that  of  the  creator.  The  creation  myth  is  long  and  contains 
many  episodes  that  have  little  organic  connection;  so  that  the 
order  of  these  varies  in  different  versions,  and  sometimes  even 
as  told  by  the  same  narrator ;  but  the  episodes  themselves  are  told 
with  more  uniformity. 

In  the  beginning  everything  was  water.  On  the  water,  in  a 
fleck  of  foam,  a  down  feather  was  circling.  From  this  issued  a 
voice  and  singing.  This  was  the  creator,  Taikomol.  Coyote 
is  represented  as  being  present,  though  in  what  form  or  resting 
on  what  is  not  told,  and  as  seeing  the  birth  or  self-creation  of 
Taikomol.  The  creator  addresses  him  throughout  as  "mother's 
brother;"  but  this  seems  not  to  imply  any  conception  of  actual 
relationship  between  them,  as  mother's  brother  is  the  regular 
term  of  address  used  by  all  myth-beings  for  Coyote.  He  as  regu- 
larly calls  them  "my  sister's  child."  The  creator  after  a  time 
gradually  assumes  human  physical  shape,  all  the  time  singing 
and  watched  by  Coyote.  He  thereupon  forms  the  earth  from  a 
piece  of  coiled  basket  which  he  makes  of  materials  and  with  an 
awl  that  he  takes  from  his  body.  The  earth  is  fastened  and 
strengthened  with  pitch,  and  the  creator  thereupon  travels  over 
it  four  times  from  north  to  south  with  Coyote  hanging  to  his 
body.  He  then  fastens  the  earth  at  the  four  ends  and  makes 
the  sky  from  the  skin  of  four  whales.  After  this  he  marries  his 
sister,  whose  origin  is  not  related  and  who  is  not  mentioned 
again,  and  thus  institutes  cohabitation.  Thereupon  he  makes 
people,  according  to  a  frequent  Californian  conception  from 
sticks  laid  in  the  house  over  night ;  in  the  morning  these  sticks 
arise  as  people.  Then  follows  a  journey  to  the  north,  in  which 
Coyote  accompanies  the  creator,  who,  it  is  said,  marries  there. 
On  the  return,  death  is  brought  into  the  world  through  the 
instrumentality  of  Coyote,  whose  son  dies  and  is  buried  by  him. 
Taikomol  offers  to  restore  him  to  life,  but  Coyote  insists  that  the 
dead  shall  remain  dead.  Then  follows  a  long  journey  of  the 
creator,  still  accompanied  by  Coyote,  in  the  course  of  which  he 
makes  tribes  in  different  localities,  in  each  case  by  laying  sticks 


VOL.  4]       Kroeber. — Myths  of  South  Central  California.  185 

in  the  house  over  night,  gives  them  their  customs  and  mode  of 
life,  and  each  their  language.  In  some  versions  two  episodes  are 
made  of  these  incidents.  After  this  the  creator  makes  mountains, 
springs,  and  streams,  mainly  from  condor  feathers.  He  then 
either  makes,  or,  according  to  another  account,  instructs  Coyote 
to  make,  the  first  ceremonies.  Sometimes  Coyote  is  represented 
as  at  first  making  the  supernatural  power  of  these  ceremonies 
so  strong  that  the  human  participants  die  in  the  course  of  them, 
whereupon  the  creator  modifies  them.  The  creator  then  journeys 
westward  across  the  ocean  to  visit  his  sister,  who,  it  is  said,  is 
not  the  one  previously  mentioned.  He  arranges  for  his  brother 
to  stand  at  the  end  of  the  world  during  summer  and  his  sister 
during  winter.  Finally,  having  returned  to  this  world,  he 
ascends  to  the  sky ;  and  there  he  still  is. 

This  creation  myth  is  followed  by  a  long  Coyote  culture-hero 
myth.  The  principal  episodes  that  have  been  obtained  in  this 
are  the  following.  The  people,  through  the  intelligence  of  Coyote 
and  with  him  as  helper,  obtain  fire  by  theft  from  the  spider,  who 
alone  has  kept  it.  Coyote  leads  a  successful  war  expedition 
against  a  northern  tribe  by  which  visiting  Yuki  have  been  killed. 
He  supernaturally  learns  of  the  existence  of  the  sun,  visits  the 
people  who  keep  it,  steals  it,  and  flees.  He  is  killed,  but  succeeds 
in  returning  to  life  and  escaping  with  the  sun.  He  makes  another 
journey,  and,  through  the  stratagem  of  assuming  the  shape  of 
a  woman,  steals  the  moon  and  the  morning  star.  Having  again 
been  killed  by  the  pursuers  and  returned  to  life,  he  thereupon 
causes  the  heavenly  bodies  to  rise  and  fixes  their  courses.  Anothei 
journey  is  made  by  him  to  the  people  who  keep  acorns,  seeds,  and 
other  foods,  and  results  in  the  acquisition  of  these  for  the  people. 
According  to  one  account  he  then  makes  people,  as  the  creator 
is  previously  represented  as  having  done ;  but  through  the  lizard 
they  are  given  a  five-fingered  hand  instead  of  the  fist  with  which 
Coyote  had  first  provided  them.  Finally  Coyote  sends  off  the 
people  of  the  world  of  that  time  to  become  animals,  directing 
each  with  what  qualities  and  in  what  manner  to  live. 

The  Yuki  myths  less  directly  connected  than  the  foregoing 
with  creation  and  the  origin  of  culture,  have  not  been  obtained 
so  completely.  There  appear  to  be  numerous  stories  in  which 


186  University  of  California  Publications.   [AM.ARCH.ETH. 

Coyote  appears  in  a  ridiculous  character.  There  are  also  hero, 
adventure,  and  animal  stories  of  the  types  found  elsewhere  in 
California.  Perhaps  the  most  important  of  these  is  a  myth  of 
the  twins  Burnt-sling  and  Hummingbird.  These  two  boys,  being 
dirty,  are  repudiated  by  their  parents,  and  live  with  their  grand- 
mother. They  develop  great  supernatural  powers.  Going  out 
to  hunt  crickets,  they  make  springs  of  water.  When  hunting 
butterflies,  they  kill  condors  in  the  sky.  They  are  attacked  by 
war  parties  from  the  north,  and  kill  them  by  waving  a  super- 
natural wand.  Other  enemies  that  come  against  them  from 
the  north  are  killed  with  their  slings.  With  these  they  shoot  gaps 
and  valleys  into  the  mountains.  With  their  slings  they  also  break 
the  sky,  which  is  supported,  and  then  repaired,  by  their  grand- 
mother the  mole.  They  kill  their  evil  parents,  turning  their 
father  into  harmless  thunder.  They  make  a  lake,  and,  to  terrify 
their  grandmother,  catch  water  monsters.  Finally  they  travel 
north.  They  reach  people  who  habitually  kill  some  of  their  own 
number  as  if  they  were  deer  and  then  eat  them.  They  teach 
these  people  to  kill  real  deer  and  to  eat  human  food.  Finally 
the  twins  go  to  the  sky.  Of  other  Yuki  stories  a  favorite  tells  of 
the  wild-cat,  the  son  of  the  panther.  Coyote  comes  in  the  absence 
of  the  boy's  elder  brothers,  persuades  him  to  show  how  the  deer 
are  supernaturally  brought,  and  kills  one.  The  angered  older 
brothers  kill  the  wild-cat  by  burning  him,  but  he  is  brought  back 
to  life.1 


1  Two  bodies  of  myths  from  other  tribes  in  the  northern  Coast  Eange 
have  been  published  since  the  writing  of  this  paper.  Mr.  S.  A.  Barrett  has 
given  "A  Composite  Myth  of  the  Porno  Indians"  of  upper  Clear  lake,  in 
the  Journ.  Am.  Folk-lore,  XIX,  37,  1906.  Coyote,  who  is  licentious,  by 
trickery  has  two  children,  who  are  abused.  In  revenge  Coyote  sets  fire  to 
the  world,  escaping  to  the  sky.  He  is  sent  back  to  earth  by  Madumda,  his 
elder  brother,  the  chief  deity.  Coyote  eats  the  food  he  finds  roasted,  becomes 
thirsty,  but  cannot  find  drink  until  he  reaches  the  ocean.  He  becomes  sick, 
is  doctored  by  Kuksu,  a  mythical  and  ceremonial  character,  and  the  water 
that  flows  from  his  belly  forms  Clear  lake.  What  he  has  eaten  turns  to 
water  animals.  He  builds  houses,  and  from  feathers  placed  in  these  makes 
people.  Going  to  the  owners  of  the  sun,  he  causes  them  to  sleep.  The  mice 
have  gnawed  the  string  by  which  the  sun  is  hung,  and  Coyote  brings  it  back 
to  Clear  lake.  Various  birds  try,  and  the  crow  brothers  succeed,  in  placing 
the  sun  in  the  sky.  Coyote  then  transforms  the  people  he  has  made  into 
animals,  assigning  each  its  attributes. 

Dr.  P.  E.  Goddard  gives  a  number  of  "Lassik  Tales"  from  the  Atha- 
bascans of  Van  Duzen  and  Dobbin  creeks  on  the  east  side  of  lower  Eel  river, 
Humboldt  county,  in  the  Journ.  Am.  Folk-lore,  XIX,  133,  1906.  The  first  is 
a  version  of  the  story  of  panther,  wild-cat,  and  Coyote  found  also  among 


VOL.  4]       Kroeber—  Myths  of  South  Central  California.  187 


MYTHOLOGY  OF  THE  SOUTHERN  CENTRAL  REGION. 

While  the  northern  half  of  the  Central  ethnological  region  of 
California  is  represented  by  collections  of  myths  sufficiently  num- 
erous and  large  to  allow  of  an  estimate  of  the  essential  character 
of  the  mythology  of  this  area,  conditions  are  very  different  in 
the  southern  half  of  the  same  culture  region.  There  is  not  a 
single  noteworthy  collection  of  native  traditions  from  the  entire 
territory  extending  from  San  Francisco  and  Sacramento  on  the 
north  to  Tehachapi  on  the  south,  a  full  third  of  the  state.  Four 
entire  linguistic  stocks,  the  Costanoan,  Esselen,  Salinan,  and 
Yokuts,  and  parts  of  two  others,  the  Miwok  and  Shoshonean, 
were  embraced  in  this  territory.  A  number  of  myths,  singly  and 
in  small  groups,  have  been  published  from  various  parts  of  this 
region,  but  they  are  neither  numerous  nor  extensive,  and  some 
are  not  of  much  value. 

Stephen  Powers  gives  a  few  bits  of  mythology  from  the 
Miwok,  the  Yokuts,  and  the  Shoshoneans  of  the  San  Joaquin 
valley.1  His  Miwok  account  of  the  creation  shows  little  except 
the  consequence,  in  the  beliefs  of  these  people,  of  Coyote,  who 
is  the  creator  of  man.  Powers'  other  Miwok  stories  are  of  small 


the  Yuki  and  in  a  somewhat  different  form  among  the  Shasta  and  Maidu. 
Wild-cat  and  fox  are  forced  by  Coyote  to  show  him  how  their  elder  brother 
kills  deer  in  a  magic  enclosure.  Coyote  bungles  and  the  deer  escape.  Panther 
returns  and  kills  his  two  younger  brothers,  but  they  return  to  life.  The 
second  tale  is  of  the  bear  and  deer  children.  As  in  many  versions,  the  deer 
children  finally  escape  over  the  neck  or  leg  of  the  crane,  who  drops  the  pur- 
suing bear  into  the  river.  The  third  story  tells  of  the  theft  of  the  sun  by 
Coyote  disguised  as  a  woman,  much  as  in  the  Yuki  and  Porno  versions.  The 
fourth  story  relates  how  the  wren  made  a  pet  or  dog  of  the  grizzly  bear.  In 
the  fifth  the  enemy  are  destroyed  and  the  scalps  of  the  slain  recovered  with 
the  help  of  Coyote's  trickery  and  the  gnawing  of  bow-strings  by  the  mice. 
The  sixth  tells  how  a  boy  and  his  grandmother  alone  are  not  killed.  The 
boy  grows  up,  killing  small  animals.  He  is  caught  (presumably  by  the  slayer 
of  his  kindred),  escapes,  and  the  pursuer  is  killed  by  his  grandmother  while 
gambling.  Dr.  Goddard  states  that  stories  similar  to  these  two  are  found 
among  the  Tolowa  of  Del  Norte  county.  Parallels  also  occur  to  the  fifth 
among  the  Shasta  and  Yana,  to  the  sixth  among  the  Maidu,  the  Yana,  and 
the  Yokuts.  In  the  seventh  story  Thunder,  gambling,  wins  from  Coyote  all 
his  property,  and  then  having  told  him  the  means  of  his  winning,  rises  to  the 
sky.  According  to  the  eighth,  two  brothers  follow,  an  elk  until  the  elder  be- 
comes a  tottering  old  man.  He  kills  the  elk  that  has  impaled  his  brother, 
and  turns  to  an  otter.  In  the  ninth,  a  tale  rather  than  a  myth,  a  dog  return- 
ing from  the  hunt  is  asked  how  many  deer  have  been  killed.  When  he  speaks, 
all  who  hear  die. 

1  Op.  tit.,  Miwok,  358,  366,  368,  Yokuts,  383,  Shoshonean,  394,  395. 


188  University  of  California  Publications.   [AM.ARCH.ETH. 

value  for  purposes  of  comparison,  being  local  legends  referring 
to  Yosemite.  He  gives  one  Yokuts  story, — it  is  not  stated  from 
what  locality, — which  resembles  one  of  the  Yokuts  versions  of 
creation  presented  in  this  paper.  At  first,  according  to  this 
account,  there  was  only  water,  from  which  a  "pole"  stood  up. 
On  this  were  the  hawk  and  the  crow.  These  made  various  birds. 
Of  these  birds  the  duck  dived  and  brought  up  earth  from  the 
bottom  of  the  water.  From  this  the  world  was  made.  Thereupon 
the  hawk  and  crow  made  mountains  of  earth,  the  hawk  the  Sierra 
Nevada,  the  crow  the  Coast  Range.  The  crow  stole  part  of  the 
hawk's  earth  and  therefore  made  his  range  the  largest.  The 
hawk,  on  discovering  the  trickery,  interchanged  the  mountains, 
so  that  the  Sierra  Nevada  is  now  higher  than  the  Coast  Range. 
In  essentials  this  story  appears  to  be  a  correct  representation  of 
the  creation  myth  of  one  of  the  Yokuts  tribes.  The  Shoshonean 
myth  material  given  by  Powers  is  fragmentary  and  slight. 

A  number  of  Indian  myths  and  traditions  referring  to  Yosem- 
ite have  been  published  in  various  connections.1  Most  of  these 
are  of  the  usual  character  of  Indian  local  legends  as  they  are 
commonly  imagined  and  sometimes  invented  by  the  whites.  Some 
others  are  more  accurate,  but  as  even  the  best  have  been  obtained 
not  with  any  idea  of  illustrating  the  life  or  thought  of  the 
Indians,  but  from  narrower  interests,  they  are  unrepresentative 
of  the  general  beliefs  of  the  Indians. 

Dr.  J.  W.  Hudson  has  published2  two  versions  of  ' '  An  Indian 
Myth  of  the  San  Joaquin  Basin," — the  visit  to  the  world  of  the 
dead  in  pursuit  of  a  wife, — one  version  from  the  southern  and 
the  other  from  the  northern  part  of  Yokuts  territory.  This  myth 
has  close  parallels  in  two  versions  presented  in  this  paper.  One 
of  these,  number  31,  may  have  been  obtained  from  the  same  in- 
formant as  Dr.  Hudson's  Tule  river  version.  He  states  that  this 
story  is  found  also  among  the  Miwok;  and,  it  will  be  recalled, 
Powers  gives  a  southern  Maidu  version  mentioned  above. 

Bancroft  quotes  from  the  Hesperian  Magazine,3  from  an 
author  who  signs  himself  only  with  the  initials  H.  B.  D.,  a  myth 

Perhaps  the  best  are  those  given  by   Galen   Clark  in  Indians   of   the 
Yosemite  Valley,  published  by  the  author,  Yosemite,  1904. 
2  Journ.  Am.  Folk-Lore,  XV,  104-106,  1902. 
*  III,  326,  1859,  in  Bancroft,  Native  Eaces,  III,  88. 


VOL.  4]      Kroeber.—Mytlis  of  South  Central  California.  189 

the  tribe  or  location  or  which  is  not  stated,  but  which  is  of  con- 
siderable importance  because  it  is  perhaps  from  the  northern 
part  of  the  Costanoan  territory.  The  entire  world,  it  is  said, 
except  the  summits  of  Mt.  Diablo  and  Reed  Peak,  was  covered 
with  water.  Coyote  was  alone  on  the  latter  peak.  A  feather 
floated  on  the  water.  This  turned  to  an  eagle  who  joined  Coyote. 
The  two  then  sometimes  went  from  one  peak  to  the  other.  They 
created  men,  and  the  water  abated.  At  first  there  were  only  two 
streams,  Russian  river  and  the  San  Juan  (sic).  Later  the  Golden 
Gate  was  formed  and  the  San  Joaquin  and  Sacramento  rivers 
began  to  flow  through  it.  The  last  part  of  this  story  is  somewhat 
suspicious  on  account  of  the  notions  of  geography  that  it  intro- 
duces, as  it  is  doubtful  whether  any  Indian  tribe  of  central 
California  had  knowledge  of  so  extensive  a  tract  of  country  as 
is  implied.  The  first  part  of  the  story  is  however  undoubtedly 
correct,  and  bears  a  close  resemblance  to  the  Costanoan  creation 
myth  given  in  this  paper.  The  eagle  appears  as  the  leading  one 
of  the  creators  not  only  in  the  Costanoan  but  in  the  Miwok  and 
Yokuts  myths  obtained  by  the  author.  His  origin  from  a  feather 
floating  on  the  water  is  similar  to  the  Yuki  origin  of  the  creator. 

In  the  ''History  of  Washington  Township,  Alameda  Coun- 
ty,"1 is  given  a  tradition  of  the  Indians  attached  to  Mission  San 
Jose,  relating  the  origin  of  death.  While  this  mission  was  in 
Costanoan  territory  and  many  of  its  Indians  were  Costanoan, 
Indians  of  other  families  were  also  brought  to  it.  Most  of  the 
surviving  Indians,  now  at  Pleasanton  and  Niles,  who  were  for- 
merly at  Mission  San  Jose,  are  Miwok.  It  is  therefore  uncertain 
whether  this  myth  is  Miwok  or  Costanoan.  As  given  it  relates 
that  a  woman  lay  in  a  trance  and  no  one  was  to  make  a  sound 
for  four  days.  The  lark,  however,  sang.  The  girl  died  and  in 
consequence  all  people  die.  To-day  when  Indians  kill  a  lark  they 
strike  its  bill  and  say:  "If  you  had  not  spoken  we  should  not 
die."  It  will  be  seen  that  this  tradition  of  the  origin  of  death 
resembles  one  from  the  Southern  Miwok  given  in  this  paper. 

In  the  same  connection  is  mentioned  an  annual  dance  held 
by  the  San  Jose  Mission  Indians  in  September.  Part  of  this  was 
the  Coyote  dance,  a  rude  sort  of  play,  in  which  one  of  the  favorite 

1  Published  by  the  Country  Clu£,  1904,  p.  34. 


190  University  of  California  Publications.   [AM.ARCH.ETH. 

characters  was  Cooksuy,  a  clown.  This  dance  was  said  to  have 
been  made  on  account  of  the  dead.  The  reference  to  Cooksuy 
allies  the  mythology  of  the  people  performing  this  dance,  who- 
ever they  may  have  been,  to  the  mythologies  of  northern  central 
California.  Among  many  of  the  Porno,  Wintun,  Maidu,  and 
perhaps  Indians  of  other  families,  Kuksu  is  a  personage  of  some 
mythological  prominence  and  great  ceremonial  importance.  It  is 
very  unusual  in  California  to  find  a  mythological  or  ceremonial 
name  maintaining  itself  beyond  the  limits  of  a  single  linguistic 
family.  The  present  reference  shows  that  the  name  and  con- 
ception of  Kuksu  evidently  extended  beyond  the  southern  Sacra- 
mento valley  and  adjacent  coast  region  to  the  region  south,  either 
in  the  Sierra  Nevada  or  on  the  coast. 

A  single  sentence  written  by  Alexander  Taylor1  about  the 
mythology  of  the  Indians  of  Mission  San  Antonio,  who  are  of  Sa- 
linan  family,  is  of  particular  importance.  It  shows  the  ideas  of 
creation  of  these  Indians  to  have  been  similar  to  those  presented 
in  this  paper  from  the  Costanoan  Indians  of  Monterey.  Taylor 
says  that  "one  of  their  superstitions  was  that  the  humming  bird 
was  first  brother  of  the  coyote,  and  he  was  first  brother  to  the 
eagle."  This  statement  appears  to  contain  absolutely  all  that 
is  known  of  the  mythology  of  the  Salinan  stock. 

A  Wiikchamni  Yokuts  myth  recently  contributed  to  the  Jour- 
nal of  American  Folk-Lore  by  Mr.  George  W.  Stewart  of  Visalia 
supplements  a  creation  myth  given  in  this  paper  from  the  same 
tribe,  number  25.  The  world  being  without  fire,  the  wolf,  at 
the  bidding  of  his  brother  Coyote,  obtains  some  in  the  mountains, 
from  which  Coyote  makes  sun  and  moon.  Coyote,  under  the 
direction  of  the  eagle,  and  with  the  help  of  wolf  and  panther, 
makes  streams,  game,  fish,  and  people.  The  people  increase  so 
that  the  creators  leave  and  go  to  the  sky,  mountains,  and  plains ; 
that  is  to  say,  become  transformed  to  animals. 

The  myths  here  presented  from  south-central  California  were 
obtained,  as  stated,  in  the  course  of  various  investigations  con- 
nected with  the  Ethnological  and  Archaeological  Survey  of  Cali- 
fornia, and  belong  to  Indians  of  the  Costanoan,  Miwok,  Yokuts, 
and  Shoshonean  families. 


1  California  Farmer,  April  27,  1860. 


VOL. 4]       Kroeber  —  Myths  of  South  Central  California.  191 


Costanoan. 

The  Costanoan  myths  are  nothing  but  fragments,  except  for 
the  creation  myth,  and  this  is  brief.  They  are,  however,  perhaps 
the  most  important  of  all  that  are  given,  because  of  our  almost 
complete  ignorance  of  the  ethnology  of  these  people  and  the 
slenderness  of  the  prospect  that  much  more  material  can  be 
obtained.  The  numerous  village  communities  of  the  Costanoan 
family,  once  extending  from  San  Francisco  to  Monterey,  and 
from  the  ocean  to  the  San  Joaquin  river,  have  shrunk  to  a  few 
dozen  persons,  all  of  them  entirely  civilized  and  living,  as  equals, 
among  the  Mexican  population  of  this  region.  The  stories 
obtained  were  told  in  Monterey  by  two  old  women,  Jacinta  Gon- 
zalez and  Maria  Viviena  Soto.  They  include  an  origin  myth, 
in  which  a  trinity  consisting  of  the  eagle,  the  humming  bird,  and 
the  coyote  are  the  creators,  and  which  begins  with  universal 
water,  but  with  the  creators  on  a  mountain  top  instead  of  on 
a  raft  as  among  the  Maidu,  or  on  a  tree  as  among  the  Yokuts. 
The  diving  for  the  earth  is  in  consequence  not  told.  The  remain- 
ing stories  all  relate  to  Coyote.  In  the  first  he  appears  as  the  giver 
of  culture  to  the  people ;  it  is  evident  that  his  part  in  Costanoan 
mythology  was  important.  The  other  tales  or  fragments  dealing 
with  him  are  typical  Coyote  stories,  and  have  no  reference  to 
origins. 

Miwok. 

The  few  Miwok  stories  given  were  obtained  in  the  course  of 
investigations  among  the  northernmost  Yokuts.  They  were  told 
by  two  men  living  among  the  Chukchansi  of  Madera  county,  Bill 
White  and  Captain  Charlie.  Both  of  these  men  were  half  Pohon- 
ichi  Miwok  and  half  Yokuts  in  descent.  The  humming-bird  of 
the  Costanoan  people  disappears  as  a  creator  among  the  Miwok. 
The  eagle  is  mentioned  as  chief  in  mythical  times,  but,  at  least 
in  the  stories  told,  about  everything  of  consequence  connected 
with  creation  is  performed  by  Coyote.  The  Miwok  creation  myth 
mentioned  as  given  by  Powers  is  from  a  more  northerly  portion 
of  the  stock  than  that  represented  in  the  present  paper,  but  shows 
Coyote  in  the  same  important  role.  The  existence  of  primeval 


192  University  of  California  Publications.   [AM.ARCH.ETH. 

water,  and  a  diving  for  the  earth  from  which  the  world  is  made, 
are  the  only  incidents  contained  in  the  fragment  that  was 
obtained  by  the  author.  A  second  story  tells  of  the  theft  of  fire 
by  Coyote ;  and  a  third  of  the  origin  of  death  in  connection  with 
though  not  through  him.  All  these  ideas  are  typical  of  almost 
all  parts  of  central  California.  It  is  illuminating  that  the  fourth 
myth  given,  the  only  one  obtained  not  dealing  with  creation,  is 
that  of  the  bear  and  deer  children. 

Yokuts. 

The  Yokuts  myths,  numbers  11  to  40,  make  up  the  bulk  of 
this  paper.  They  were  obtained  from  individuals  belonging  to 
several  tribes  and  in  part  are  attributed  by  them  to  still  other 
tribes. 

The  first  four  of  these  myths  are  from  the  Gashowu,  now 
living  south  of  the  San  Joaquin  a  few  miles  above  Pollasky. 
They  were  obtained  from  a  young  man  called  Guadalupe  and  a 
blind  old  man  named  Bill.  The  account  of  the  creation  contains 
the  ideas  of  the  diving  for  the  earth  and  the  making  and  inter- 
change of  the  mountains  which  are  narrated  also  by  other 
Yokuts.  The  version  of  the  origin  of  death  resembles  that  of 
the  Pohonichi  Miwok.  Number  14,  the  longest  of  the  Gashowu 
tales,  is  evidently  a  composite.  Two  of  the  elements  composing 
it  have  not  yet  been  found  elsewhere  in  south  central  California, 
but  are  paralleled  among  distant  tribes.  These  are  the  marriage 
of  Coyote  to  the  woman  with  the  rattlesnake,  which  has 
analogues,  especially  on  the  North  Pacific  Coast  as  far  down  as 
northwestern  California,  and  the  episode  of  the  people  who  were 
so  constructed  that  they  could  not  eat,  which  has  an  Eskimo 
equivalent  from  Baffin  Land. 

The  next  ten  of  the  Yokuts  stories,  numbers  15  to  24,  were 
obtained  from  a  man  named  Tom  belonging  to  the  Tachi.  This 
tribe  lived  at  the  northern  end  of  Tulare  lake.  The  first  four 
of  these  myths  were  stated  by  the  informant  not  to  belong  to  his 
people  but  to  be  stories  of  the  Truhohi,  a  tribe  mentioned  also 
as  Truhohayi  or  Tukhokhayi  by  other  Indian  informants,  and 
now  extinct.  They  inhabited  the  region  near  the  southern  end 


VOL.  4]      Kroeber. — Mytlis  of  South  Central  California.  193 

of  Tulare  lake.  The  principal  origin  stories  told  by  this  inform- 
ant are  among  these  four  attributed  to  the  Truhohi.  The  account 
of  the  making  of  the  earth  and  mountains  resembles  that  given 
by  the  Gashowu  and  the  version  told  by  Powers.  Other  of  the 
Truhohi  stories  tell  of  the  origin  of  fire,  mainly  through  the 
instrumentality  of  Coyote;  of  the  origin  of  death,  for  which, 
however,  Coyote  is  not  responsible;  and  of  the  origin  of  the 
sun.  The  remaining  six  stories  of  this  group  of  ten  are  appar- 
ently true  Tachi,  and  include  an  account  of  the  origin  of  the 
milky  way  from  a  race  of  the  antelope  and  the  deer,  a  story 
which  is  interesting  on  account  of  the  close  parallel  that  it 
furnishes  to  myths  of  the  Indians  of  the  Plains;  two  other  star 
myths,  including  one  about  the  Pleiades;  a  story  in  which  the 
prairie  falcon  figures  as  hero;  a  tale  about  twins  of  miraculous 
power,  connected  here,  as  often  elsewhere  in  California,  with 
thunder ;  and  a  typical  version  of  the  visit  to  the  dead. 

The  following  twelve  stories,  numbers  25  to  36,  were  obtained 
from  Peter  Christman,  an  Indian  of  the  Yaudanchi  or  original 
Tule  river  tribe.  This  informant  was  not  acquainted  with  the 
creation  myth  of  his  own  people,  but  narrated  a  Wiikchamni  ver- 
sion which  he  had  learned  from  a  man  named  Jo  living  on  the 
same  reservation.  The  Wiikchamni  were  a  Kaweah  river  tribe 
just  north  of  the  Yaudanchi  and  spoke  an  almost  identical  dia- 
lect. The  story  of  Mikiti,  number  34,  also  seems  not  to  be  Yau- 
danchi. It  was  stated  by  the  informant  to  have  been  learned 
by  him  from  a  man  who  was  a  Yauelmani  Yokuts.  The  localities 
mentioned  are,  however,  in  the  territory  of  the  Paleuyami  tribe, 
and  it  is  not  unlikely  that  the  myth  belongs  to  these  people.  This 
is  a  story  resembling  some  found  among  the  Sacramento  valley 
tribes,  for  instance  Curtin's  Yana  myth  of  the  Hakas  and  the 
Tennas.  The  hero,  a  boy,  is  brought  up  by  his  grandmother  and 
kills  those  who  have  destroyed  his  relatives.  The  remaining 
stories  of  this  group  are  apparently  Yaudanchi.  There  is  a 
version  of  the  theft  of  fire,  which  is,  however,  accomplished  by 
the  rabbit,  not  by  Coyote.  Most  of  the  stories  deal  either  with 
the  eagle  or  the  prairie  falcon.  There  is  also  a  version  of  the 
visit  to  the  dead. 

The  Yauelmani  stories  given,  numbers  37  to  40,  are  from  two 


194  University  of  California  Publications.   [AM.ARCH.ETH. 

informants,  both  on  Tule  river  reservation.  The  original  terri- 
tory of  the  Yauelmani  was  south  of  Tule  river,  apparently  about 
Kern  river  in  the  vicinity  of  Bakersfield  and  above  to  Gonoilkin. 
Number  37  was  obtained  from  Cow,  the  oldest  man  on  the 
reservation,  and  is  a  somewhat  fuller  account  of  the  creation,  with 
the  usual  prominence  of  the  eagle  and  Coyote  and  the  episode 
of  the  diving  for  the  earth,  than  any  of  the  other  Yokuts  versions 
obtained.  The  antithesis  between  the  wolf  and  Coyote  is  inter- 
esting because  it  reappears  in  other  parts  of  California.  The 
dignity  of  character  attributed  to  the  prairie  falcon  is  also  notice- 
able. The  following  fragment,  number  38,  from  the  same  inform- 
ant, shows  Coyote  as  the  cause  of  death,  and  is  interesting  because 
it  reveals  the  presence  among  these  people  of  the  wide-spread 
Californian  belief  of  the  origin  of  the  human  hand  as  patterned 
upon  that  of  the  lizard.  The  next  two  stories,  numbers  39  and 
40,  were  obtained  from  an  informant  named  Chalola,  also  an 
old  man.  The  first  of  these  two  is  by  far  the  longest  myth  in 
the  entire  collection,  and  appears  to  consist  of  three  more  or 
less  separate  series  of  incidents.  It  is  doubtful  how  far  the  join- 
ing together  of  these  is  due  to  the  individual  narrator.  The  first 
part  tells  how  Coyote  caused  the  absence  of  the  sun  in  order  to 
avenge  himself  upon  the  people  with  whom  he  lived.  In  this 
part  of  the  myth  he  is  the  hero.  The  second  portion  is  much 
more  loosely  put  together,  and  consists  of  a  string  of  typical 
Coyote  episodes,  his  character  being  throughout  ridiculous.  A 
sudden  transition  made  from  Coyote  to  the  prairie  falcon,  leads 
to  the  third  portion  of  this  myth,  which  tells  of  the  prairie  fal- 
con's  loss  of  his  eyes  in  gambling  and  his  travels.  This  part  of 
the  story  seems  to  be  little  else  than  a  framework  for  a  number 
of  songs.  The  second  Yauelmani  story  obtained  from  this 
informant,  number  40,  is  also  of  some  length  and  again  has  the 
prairie  falcon  as  its  hero. 

Shoskonean. 

Only  one  Shoshonean  myth  is  given,  the  last  in  the  collection. 
This  is  from  the  Gitanemuk  or  Gikidanum,  a  tribe  on  upper 
Tejon  creek  at  the  extreme  southern  end  of  the  San  Joaquin 
valley.  Linguistically  the  Gitanemuk  are  very  closely  related 


VOL.  4]      Kroeber. — Myths  of  South  Central  California.  195 

to  the  Serrano  of  the  San  Bernardino  mountains  in  Southern 
California.  This  story  was  obtained  from  the  same  Yauelmani 
informant,  Chalola,  who  had  lived  for  many  years  among  the 
Gitanemuk.  This  one  myth  is  not  of  a  character  to  give  any 
indication  as  to  the  general  nature  of  the  beliefs  of  the  people 
to  whom  it  belongs.  It  is  apparently  the  first  myth  published 
not  only  from  this  tribe  but  from  any  of  the  Shoshonean  groups 
of  the  southern  San  Joaquin-Tulare  basin. 

General  Characterization. 

From  this  new  material  the  mythological  beliefs  of  three  of 
the  linguistic  families  of  south  central  California,  the  Costanoan, 
the  Miwok,  and  the  Yokuts,  can  be  summarized  and  compared 
as  follows  with  the  beliefs  of  the  Indians  of  northern  Central 
California. 

Among  the  Costanoan  Indians  the  eagle,  the  humming-bird, 
and  Coyote  are  the  creators.  The  eagle  is  the  chief,  the  hum- 
ming-bird the  favorite,  and  Coyote  both  an  object  of  ridicule  and 
the  originator  of  culture  for  the  people.  There  is  the  general 
Californian  conception  of  the  origin  of  the  world  after  a  period 
of  water ;  but  the  diving  for  the  earth  is  not  related. 

The  Miwok  creation  myths  are  characterized  by  the  promi- 
nence of  Coyote.  The  world  begins  with  water,  and  the  earth 
from  which  it  is  made  is  brought  up  by  diving  birds.  Coyote 
seems  to  be  responsible  for  most  things,  both  in  the  physical  world 
and  in  the  life  of  man.  The  presence,  among  the  few  myths  col- 
lected from  this  people,  of  the  bear  and  deer  children  story  found 
throughout  northern  California,  but  not  yet  obtained  among 
the  Yokuts  to  the  south  although  a  much  larger  body  of  myths 
was  collected  there,  is  perhaps  indicative  of  a  closer  mythological 
relation  of  the  Miwok  to  the  north. 

The  Yokuts  origin  myths  begin  with  water  and  a  plurality 
of  creators,  of  whom  the  eagle  is  the  head.  Coyote  is  also  among 
them,  and,  while  at  times  ridiculous  in  comparison  with  the 
others,  is  responsible  for  certain  features  of  distinctively  human 
life.  There  are  stories  of  the  theft  of  fire,  and  of  the  origin  of 
death,  which  resemble  those  told  in  northern  California.  Hero 


196  University  of  California  Publications.   [AM.ARCH.ETH. 

stories  recounting  the  miraculous  origin  of  the  hero  and  his  num- 
erous supernatural  exploits,  especially  the  destruction  of  mon- 
sters or  rivals,  appear  to  have  been  much  less  developed  than  in 
the  Sacramento  valley  region.  There  is  not  one  story  that  is 
clearly  of  this  type  among  the  twenty  odd  Yokuts  myths  obtained ; 
whereas  among  the  northern  tribes  such  a  tale  is  usually  one 
of  the  most  important  next  to  the  creation  and  culture  myths. 
It  is  also  noteworthy  that  the  story  of  the  evil  father-in-law, 
which  is  so  highly  developed  among  the  Maidu,  Wintun,  and 
Yana,  is  without  a  representative  in  the  Yokuts  collection.  In- 
stead of  these  types  of  myths,  comparatively  simple  animal  tales, 
without  a  very  marked  element  of  the  supernatural,  are  found. 
In  these  the  prairie  falcon  is  a  favorite  hero.  A  mythological 
idea  which  has  taken  a  special  hold  on  the  Yokuts  is  that  of  a 
man 's  visit  to  the  world  of  the  dead  in  pursuit  of  his  wife. 

COMPAETSON  OF  THE  MYTHOLOGIES  OF  NORTH  AND  SOUTH 
CENTRAL  CALIFORNIA. 

Upon  comparison,  the  several  mythologies  of  the  north  and 
south  halves  of  the  Central  ethnological  region  of  California  ap- 
pear similar  in  the  following  respects :  The  possession  of  creation 
myths;  the  uniform  antithesis,  to  a  greater  or  less  degree,  of 
Coyote  and  the  chief  creator  in  these  creation  myths ;  the  pres- 
ence of  numerous  Coyote  trickster  stories;  a  considerable  range 
of  animal  characters;  certain  ideas,  also  commonly  held  by  the 
Indians  of  a  large  part  of  America,  especially  of  the  flood  or 
primeval  water,  the  theft  of  fire,  and  the  origin  of  death,— 
Coyote  usually  appearing  in  connection  with  the  last  two;  and 
certain  ideas  of  similar  type  which  are  more  nearly  confined  to 
California,  such  as  the  origin  of  the  human  hand  from  the  lizard 
in  opposition  to  Coyote.  In  both  north  and  south  Central  Cali- 
fornia there  are  no  migration  legends  nor  any  long  systematized 
myths  giving  the  history  of  the  people,  of  the  type  characterizing 
the  Southwest  and  Southern  California;  nor  is  there  a  distinct 
culture-hero  cycle  such  as  is  found  almost  everywhere  on  the 
Pacific  Coast  farther  north  than  California ;  and  finally,  a  well- 
developed  idea  of  a  previous  race  parallel  to  the  present  human 
race,  but  distinct  from  it  in  being  the  originators  of  things,  is 


VOL.  4]      Kroeber. — Myths  of  South  Central  California.  197 

either  wanting  or  much  less  clearly  developed  than  in  Northwest- 
ern California. 

The  following  differences  appear  between  the  northern  and 
southern  halves  of  this  Central  region.  In  the  south  there  are 
no  developed  or  extensive  creation  myths.  There  is  also  scarcely 
a  full  creator.  The  eagle,  who  is  most  nearly  such,  is  really  only 
the  chief  among  a  number  of  equals.  The  mere  fact  that  the 
creators  are  several,  and  that  they  are  animals,  must  tend  to 
minimize  their  distinctly  creative  qualities.  Secondly,  the  hero 
stories  and  destroyer  and  transformer  myths  of  the  north  are 
very  little  developed  in  the  south.  In  place  of  the  Maidu  Con- 
queror, who  destroys  innumerable  evils,  the  favorite  hero  of  the 
San  Joaquin  valley  Indians  is  the  prairie  falcon,  who  is  repre- 
sented as  swift,  silent,  fierce,  a  successful  gambler,  and  as  living 
only  on  tobacco ;  but  his  exploits  as  compared  with  the  startling 
and  supernatural  ones  of  the  Maidu  hero  are  such  comparatively 
simple  events  as  recovering  his  wife  after  she  has  been  stolen, 
killing  his  enemies  in  battle,  and  losing  his  eyes  in  gambling. 
In  this  respect  the  simple  Miwok  and  Tachi  Yokuts  stories  of  the 
supernatural  Thunder  twins  are  also  typical  of  the  south  as  com- 
pared with  the  elaborate  Yuki  story  of  the  twin  children  of 
Thunder.  In  the  third  place,  striking  episodes  of  magic  are 
much  less  developed  in  the  south  than  in  the  north,  the  stories 
being  pitched  throughout  in  a  quieter  and  lower  key.  There  are 
fewer  fateful  incidents  dealing  with  life  and  death  and  involv- 
ing supreme  struggle  and  suspense.  The  tales  are  rather  naively 
pleasant,  with  a  semi-humorous  element,  and  tell  of  but  few  con- 
tests except  such  as  are  more  or  less  good-natured  or  peaceful. 
In  a  measure,  of  course,  this  contrast  is  due  to  the  fact  that  the 
mythology  of  the  south  is,  so  far  as  collected,  more  broken  under 
the  influence  of  civilization  than  that  of  the  north,  and  that  in 
consequence  aboriginal  peculiarities  and  extravagances  that  once 
may  have  existed  similar  to  those  still  found  in  the  north,  have 
now  been  lost  or  abbreviated.  But  after  allowing  for  this  factor 
it  seems  that  a  difference  of  tone  must  have  existed  between  the 
two  halves  of  the  ethnic  region  even  in  former  times.  Among 
tales  or  incidents  that  occur  in  the  north  but  seem  to  be  either 
lacking  or  much  less  developed  in  the  south  or  have  not  been 


198  University  of  California  Publications.   [AM.ARCH.ETH. 

found  there,  are  the  important  story  of  the  bear  and  deer  chil- 
dren, which  probably  did  not  occur  farther  south  than  the 
Miwok ;  the  equally  important  story  dealing  with  the  evil  father- 
in-law;  the  peculiarly  northern  California  story  of  the  loon- 
woman;  the  story  of  the  brother  who  was  stolen  and  recovered 
from  the  sky;  the  impostor  frog-woman;  the  devouring  rolling 
head ;  and  the  hero  who  was  dug  from  the  ground.  On  the  other 
hand  the  Indians  of  the  northern  half  of  the  Central  region  show 
a  different  form  of  the  story  of  the  thunder  twins,  and  lack 
entirely  the  peculiar  southern  Central  conception  of  the  charac- 
ter of  the  prairie  falcon  and  the  typical  form  of  the  tale  of 
the  visit  to  the  dead. 


VOL.  4]       Kroeber. — Mytlis  of  South  Central  California.  199 


II.     THE  MYTHS. 

1. — RUMSIEN   COSTANOAN.      TlIE  BEGINNING  OF  THE  WORLD.1 

When  this  world  was  finished,  the  eagle,  the  humming-bird, 
and  Coyote  were  standing  on  the  top  of  Pico  Blanco.  When  the 
water  rose  to  their  feet,  the  eagle,  carrying  the  humming-bird 
and  Coyote,  flew  to  the  Sierra  de  Gabilan.  There  they  stood 
until  the  water  went  down.  Then  the  eagle  sent  Coyote  down 
the  mountain  to  see  if  the  world  were  dry.  Coyote  came  back 
and  said:  "The  whole  world  is  dry."  The  eagle  said  to  him: 
"Go  and  look  in  the  river.  See  what  there  is  there."  Coyote 
came  back  and  said:  "There  is  a  beautiful  girl."  The  eagle 
said :  ' '  She  will  be  your  wife  in  order  that  people  may  be  raised 
again."  He  gave  Coyote  a  digging  implement  of  abalone  shell 
and  a  digging  stick.  Coyote  asked :  ' '  How  will  my  children  be 
raised  ? ' '  The  eagle  would  ;iot  say.  He  wanted  to  see  if  Coyote 
was  wise  enough  to  know.  Coyote  asked  him  again  how  these 
new  people  were  to  be  raised  from  the  girl.  Then  he  said :  ' '  Well, 
I  will  make  them  right  here  in  the  knee. ' '  The  eagle  said :  ' '  No, 
that  is  not  good."  Then  Coyote  said:  "Well  then,  here  in  the 
elbow."  "No,  that  is  not  good."  "In  the  eyebrow."  "No, 
that  is  not  good."  "In  the  back  of  the  neck."  No,  that  is  not 
good  either.  None  of  these  will  be  good."  Then  the  humming- 
bird cried:  "Yes,  my  brother,  they  are  not  good.  This  place 
will  be  good,  here  in  the  belly."  Then  Coyote  was  angry.  He 
wanted  to  kill  him.  The  eagle  raised  his  wings  and  the  humming- 
bird flew  in  his  armpit.  Coyote  looked  for  him  in  vain.  Then 
the  girl  said:  "What  shall  I  do?  How  will  I  make  my  chil- 
dren?" The  eagle  said  to  Coyote:  "Go  and  marry  her.  She 
will  be  your  wife."  Then  Coyote  went  off  with  this  girl.  He 
said  to  her:  "Louse  me."  Then  the  girl  found  a  woodtick  on 
him.  She  was  afraid  and  threw  it  away.  Then  Coyote  seized 
her.  He  said:  "Look  for  it,  look  for  it!  Take  it!  Eat  it! 
Eat  my  louse ! ' '  Then  the  girl  put  it  into  her  mouth.  ' '  Swallow 

1  Partially  based  on  a  Rumsien  text. 


200  University  of  California  Publications.   [AM.ARCH.ETH. 

it,  swallow  it!"  he  said.  Then  she  swallowed  it  and  became 
pregnant.  Then  she  was  afraid.  She  ran  away.  She  ran 
through  thorns.  Coyote  ran  after  her.  He  called  to  her:  "Do 
not  run  through  that  brush."  He  made  a  good  road  for  her. 
But  she  said:  "I  do  not  like  this  road."  Then  Coyote  made  a 
road  with  flowers  on  each  side.  Perhaps  the  girl  would  stop  to 
take  a  flower.  She  said:  "I  am  not  used  to  going  between 
flowers. ' '  Then  Coyote  said :  ' '  There  is  no  help  for  it.  I  cannot 
stop  her."  So  she  ran  to  the  ocean.  Coyote  was  close  to  her. 
Just  as  he  was  going  to  take  hold  of  her,  she  threw  herself  into 
the  water  and  the  waves  came  up  between  them  as  she  turned 
to  a  sand  flea  (or  shrimp:  camaron).  Coyote,  diving  after  her, 
struck  only  the  sand.  He  said:  "I  wanted  to  clasp  my  wife 
but  took  hold  of  the  sand.  My  wife  is  gone. ' ' 

2. — RUMSIEN  COSTANOAN.      COYOTE.1 

Coyote's  wife  said  to  him:  "I  do  not  want  you  to  marry 
other  women. ' '  Now  they  had  only  one  child.  Then  Coyote  said : 
"I  want  many  children.  We  alone  cannot  have  many  children. 
Let  me  marry  another  woman  so  that  there  may  be  more  of  us. ' ' 
Then  the  woman  said,  ' '  Well,  go. ' ' 

Then  he  had  five  children.  Then  his  children  said:  "Where 
shall  we  make  our  houses?  Where  shall  we  marry?"  Coyote 
told  them:  "Go  out  over  the  world."  Then  they  went  and 
founded  five  rancherias  with  five  different  languages.  The 
rancherias  are  said  to  have  been  Ensen,  Rumsien,  Ekkheya, 
Kakonta,  and  that  of  the  Wacharones. 

Now  Coyote  gave  the  people  the  carrying  net.  He  gave  them 
bow  and  arrows  to  kill  rabbits.  He  said:  "You  will  have  acorn 
mush  for  your  food.  You  will  gather  acorns  and  you  will  have 
acorn  bread  to  eat.  Go  down  to  the  ocean  and  gather  seaweed 
that  you  may  eat  it  with  your  acorn  mush  and  acorn  bread. 
Gather  it  when  the  tide  is  low,  and  kill  rabbits,  and  at  low 
tide  pick  abalones  and  mussels  to  eat.  When  you  can  find  noth- 
ing else,  gather  buckeyes  for  food.  If  the  acorns  are  bitter,  wash 
them  out;  and  gather  "wild  oat"  seeds  for  pinole,  carrying  them 

1  Partially  based  on  a  Rumsien  text. 


VOL.  4]       Kroeber. — Myths  of  South  Central  California.  201 

on  your  back  in  a  basket.  Look  for  these  things  of  which  I  have 
told  you.  I  have  shown  you  what  is  good.  Now  I  will  leave  you. 
You  have  learned.  I  have  shown  you  how  to  gather  food,  and 
even  though  it  rains  a  long  time  people  will  not  die  of  hunger. 
Now  I  am  getting  old.  I  cannot  walk.  Alas  for  me !  Now  I  go. " 

3. — RUMSIEN  COSTANOAN.      COYOTE  AND  THE  HUMMINGBIRD. 

Coyote  thought  he  knew  more  than  anyone ;  but  the  humming- 
bird knew  more.  Then  Coyote  wanted  to  kill  him.  He  caught 
him,  struck  him,  and  mashed  him  entirely.  Then  he  went  off. 
The  hummingbird  came  to  life,  flew  up,  and  cried:  "Lakun, 
dead,"  in  mockery.  Coyote  caught  him,  made  a  fire,  and  put 
him  in.  He  and  his  people  had  gone  only  a  little  way  when  the 
hummingbird  flew  by  crying:  "Lakun!"  Coyote  said:  "How 
shall  I  kill  him?"  They  told  him:  "The  only  way  is  for  you 
to  eat  him."  Then  Coyote  swallowed  him.  The  hummingbird 
scratched  him  inside.  Coyote  said:  "What  shall  I  do?  I  shall 
die. ' '  They  said :  ' '  You  must  let  him  out  by  defecating. ' '  Then 
Coyote  let  him  out  and  the  hummingbird  flew  up  crying: 
"Lakun!" 

4. — RUMSIEN  COSTANOAN.    COYOTE  AND  His  WIFE. 

Makewiks  is  an  animal  that  lives  in  the  ocean  and  sometimes 
comes  to  the  surface.  Coyote  went  to  the  ocean  with  his  wife. 
He  told  her  not  to  be  afraid.  He  told  her  about  the  sea  lion, 
about  the  mussels,  about  the  crabs,  and  the  octopus.  He  told 
her  that  all  these  were  relatives ;  so  when  she  saw  them  she  was 
not  afraid.  But  he  did  not  tell  her  about  the  makewiks.  Then 
when  this  rose  before  her  it  frightened  her  so  that  she  fell  dead. 
Coyote  took  her  on  his  back,  carried  her  off,  built  a  fire,  and  laid 
her  by  the  side  of  it.  He  began  to  sing  and  dance  and  jump. 
Soon  she  began  to  come  to  life.  He  jumped  three  times  and 
brought  her  to  life. 

5. — RUMSIEN  COSTANOAN.    COYOTE  AND  His  CHILDREN. 

Coyote  killed  salmon  and  put  them  into  the  ashes  to  roast. 
He  did  not  want  his  children  to  eat  them.  Therefore  he  pre- 
tended that  they  were  only  ashes.  Once  in  a  while  he  reached 


202  University  of  California  Publications.   [AM.ARCH.ETH. 

into  the  ashes,  took  a  piece,  and  ate  it.  Then  his  children  cried 
out  that  he  was  eating  fire  and  would  be  burned.  When  they 
wanted  to  take  some,  he  did  not  let  them.  He  said :  ' '  You  will 
be  burned." 

6. — RUMSIEN    COSTANOAN.      COYOTE  WITH  A  THORN   IN   HIS   EYE. 

Coyote  came  to  some  women  and  asked  them  to  pull  out  a 
thorn  from  his  eye.  There  was  only  a  little  stick  which  he  held 
in  place  with  his  eyelid.  At  first  they  distrusted  him.  He 
selected  the  most  beautiful ;  ' '  You  draw  it  out, ' '  he  sang.  When 
she  was  about  to  take  it  with  her  fingers,  he  said :  ' '  No,  take  hold 
of  it  with  your  teeth. ' '  He  said  this  so  that  he  might  seize  her. 
When  she  took  hold  of  the  little  stick  he  seized  her  and  ran  off 
with  her.  His  song: 

Meneya  don  kac  op  ka  yapunin,  you  (?)  me  pull-out  my  thorn! 

7. — POHONICHI  MIWOK.    THE  BEGINNING  OP  THE  WORLD. 

Told  among  the  Chukchansi  Yokuts. 

Before  there  were  people  there  was  only  water  everywhere. 
Coyote  looked  among  the  ducks  and  sent  a  certain  species 
(Chukchansi:  yimeit)  to  dive.  At  first  it  said  it  was  unable  to. 
Then  it  went  down.  It  reached  the  bottom,  bit  the  earth,  and 
came  up  again.  Coyote  took  the  earth  from  it  and  sent  it  for 
chanit  (Yokuts  name)  seeds.  When  the  duck  brought  these  he 
mixed  them  with  the  earth  and  water.  Then  the  mixture  swelled 
until  the  water  had  disappeared.  The  earth  was  there. 

8. — POHONICHI  MIWOK.    THE  THEFT  OF  FIRE. 
Told  among  the  Chukchansi  Yokuts. 

At  first  there  was  no  fire.  The  turtle  had  it  all.  He  sat  on 
it  and  covered  it  up.  He  lived  far  up  in  the  east  in  the  moun- 
tains. Coyote  went  to  that  place.  He  lay  down  like  a  piece  of 
wood.  The  people  who  lived  there  came  by  and  saw  him.  ' '  I  am 
going  to  take  this  piece  of  wood, ' '  they  said.  They  took  him  home 
and  put  him  in  the  fire.  Coyote  tried  to  get  into  the  fire  under 
the  turtle.  The  turtle  said:  "Stop  pushing  me."  Now  Coyote 
got  some  of  the  fire.  Then  he  ran  down-hill  with  it  westward 


VOL.  4]      Kroeber. — Myths  of  Sotith  Central  California.  203 

into  this  country,  where  then  there  was  no  fire  and  it  was  cold. 
He  caught  a  quail  and  with  its  fat  he  made  his  fire  blaze  up. 
Now  the  people  first  all  became  warm.  The  Mono  (Shoshon- 
eans)  were  far  back  up  in  the  hills;  the  Chukchansi  (Yokuts) 
in  the  middle;  the  Pohonichi  (Miwok)  were  the  ones  who  received 
the  fire.  Coyote  was  one  of  them.  That  is  why  the  Mono  cannot 
speak  well ;  it  is  too  cold  where  they  live. 

Coyote  made  the  eagle  the  chief  of  the  people.  They  enjoyed 
themselves  and  made  dances.  They  were  warm  now  because  they 
had  fire.  They  lived  well.  They  wore  no  clothes.  Some  men 
wore  a  blanket  of  rabbit  skins  or  of  deer  skin ;  others  wore  noth- 
ing. They  used  hollow  stones  to  cook  in,  made  of  soft  red  stone. 
The  eagle  told  them :  ' '  Go  out  and  catch  rabbits, ' '  and  then  they 
caught  rabbits  to  eat.  To  get  salt  they  went  beyond  the  North 
Fork  of  the  San  Joaquin. 

9. — POHONICHI  MIWOK.    THE  ORIGIN  OF  DEATH. 

Told  among  the  Chukchansi  Yokuts. 

When  the  first  person  died  Coyote  was  south  of  him,  the 
meadow-lark  to  the  north.  Now  the  dead  person  began  to  stink. 
The  meadow-lark  smelled  it.  He  did  not  like  it.  Coyote  said: 
' '  I  think  I  will  make  him  get  up. ' '  The  meadow-lark  said :  ' '  No, 
do  not.  There  will  be  too  many.  They  will  become  so  hungry 
that  they  will  eat  each  other."  Coyote  said:  "That  is  nothing. 
I  do  not  like  people  to  die."  But  the  meadow-lark  told  him: 
' '  No,  it  is  not  well  to  have  too  many.  There  will  be  others  instead 
of  those  that  die.  A  man  will  have  many  children.  The  old 
people  will  die  but  the  young  will  live."  Then  Coyote  said 
nothing  more.  So  from  that  time  on  people  have  always  died. 
Coyote  said:  "It  will  be  best  to  put  them  into  the  fire."  And 
so  the  dead  were  burned. 

10. — POHONICHI  MIWOK.    THE  BEAR  AND  DEER  CHILDREN. 

Told  among  the  Chukchansi  Yokuts. 

The  thunders  were  two  boys  with  supernatural  powers.  Their 
mother  was  the  deer.  The  grizzly  bear  also  had  two  children. 
The  two  women  went  to  the  creek  looking  for  clover  (Chuk- 
chansi: malich).  Now  they  loused  each  other.  Then  the  bear 


204  University  of  California  Publications.   [AM.ARCH.ETH. 

bit  the  back  of  the  deer's  neck  and  killed  her.  The  two  deer- 
children  made  a  little  sweat-house.  After  the  bear  had  killed  and 
eaten  their  mother,  they  killed  the  two  bear-children  in  this  sweat- 
house  with  fire.  Then  they  struck  the  ground  and  made  a  noise 
and  fled  to  their  grandfather.  He  was  powerful  and  had  a  large 
sweat-house.  The  bear  pursued  them.  She  had  nearly  caught 
them  when  they  escaped  into  the  sweat  house.  The  bear  put  in 
her  head  looking  for  them.  Her  hind  legs  were  still  outside.  The 
boys '  grandfather  had  supernatural  powers  with  fire ;  his  amulet 
was  a  white  rock  at  the  top  of  the  house.  When  all  the  bear's 
body  except  her  hind  legs  was  in  the  house  as  she  looked  about 
for  the  two  boys,  the  white  fire-rock  entered  her  anus  and  burned 
her  to  death  inside.  Then  the  two  young  deer  became  thunders. 
After  awhile  they  also  had  supernatural  powers.  They  made  so 
much  noise  in  the  house  that  their  grandfather  was  afraid.  They 
went  up  above,  where  they  still  are.1 

The  half-Chukchansi  from  whom  the  Pohonichi  tales  just 
given  were  obtained  did  not  seem  to  know  any  story  of  the  steal- 
ing of  the  sun,  of  a  hero  who  is  dug  out  of  the  ground  as  a  child, 
and  of  a  contest  between  the  coyote  and  the  lizard  determining 
the  shape  of  the  human  hand. 

11. — GASHOWU  YOKUTS.    THE  BEGINNING  OF  THE  .WORLD. 

The  prairie  falcon  and  the  raven  made  the  earth  at  a  time 
when  everything  was  water.  The  beaver,  the  otter,  the  mud-hen, 
the  mallard  duck,  and  a  duck  called  potikh  dived  and  tried  to 
reach  bottom,  but  could  not  do  so.  Then  k'uik'ui,  a  small  duck, 
dived,  reached  the  bottom,  and  grasped  the  sand  there.  As  he 
rose  up,  it  washed  out  of  his  hands,  his  mouth,  and  his  ears.  Only 
a  little  was  left  under  his  finger-nail.  When  he  came  to  the  sur- 
face, he  gave  this  to  the  prairie  falcon.  The  prairie  falcon  had 
tobacco.  This  he  mixed  with  the  sand.  Then  he  divided  it,  and 
gave  half  to  the  raven,  whom  he  called  his  friend.  They  went 
far  to  the  north.  There  they  separated.  The  prairie  falcon  sent 
the  raven  to  go  southward  on  the  west.  He  himself  came  south- 
ward along  the  east  where  these  mountains  are  now.  As  they 

1  The  Miwok  of  Yosemite  also  state  that  the  thunders  are  two  boys  who 
were  deer.    They  control  snow  and  rain. 


VOL.  4]       Kroeber. — Mytlis  of  South  Central  California.  205 

went  they  dropped  the  sand  from  between  the  thumb  and  finger. 
As  the  sand  fell  into  the  water  it  began  to  boil  and  the  world 
grew  from  underneath.  Then  the  raven  surpassed  the  prairie 
falcon.  These  large  mountains  which  are  now  here  were  then 
in  the  west.  When  the  prairie  falcon  arrived  he  saw  that  the 
raven 's  mountains  were  the  larger.  Then  he  changed  them  about. 
He  put  one  in  the  place  of  the  other  without  the  raven's  know- 
ledge. 

So  if  it  had  not  been  for  k'uik'ui  and  the  prairie  falcon  the 
world  would  not  have  been  made.  But  it  was  the  prairie  falcon 
who  first  wanted  the  world. 

12. — GASHOWU  YOKUTS.    THE  ORIGIN  OF  DEATH. 

A  person  was  dying.  Then  some  people  said :  "Let  it  be  that 
he  lies  outside  for  three  days.  Then  he  will  get  up  and  be  a 
person  again."  Now  there  was  one  newly  married  man,  the 
meadow-lark.  He  did  not  like  the  dead  person  lying  near  his 
house  because  the  body  smelled.  He  said:  "We  will  take  the 
dead  one  away  and  burn  him."  So  the  people  were  persuaded. 
They  built  a  pile  of  wood,  laid  the  body  on  it,  and  burned  it. 
Thus  the  people  of  old  times  did,  and  so  people  die  now  and 
do  not  come  back. 

13. — GASHOWU  YOKUTS.    THE  OWL  DOCTOR. 

The  prairie  falcon  made  war  on  the  northerners  and  was 
killed.  Coyote  claimed  to  be  a  medicine  man  and  was  the 
first  to  doctor  him.  He  was  merely  a  pretender  who  wanted 
to  obtain  pay.  Then  others,  all  owls,  doctored  him.  Hihina,  the 
large  owl,  sodut,  the  white  owl,  wedjiji,  the  ground  owl,  and 
hihimcha,  the  small  owl,  were  the  ones  who  doctored  him.  It  was 
the  white  owl  that  cured  him. 

14. — GASHOWU  YOKUTS.    COYOTE,  THE  HAWK,  AND  THE  CONDOR 

There  was  a  woman  whom  no  one  was  able  to  marry,  except 
finally  Coyote.  He  overcame  her.  She  was  wachwach,  a  hand- 
some species  of  hawk.  She  lived  alone.  The  wolf  and  Coyote 
and  their  families  lived  in  one  place  with  other  people.  Many 
men  went  out  to  hunt  deer  but  never  found  any.  The  wildcat 


206  University  of  California  Publications.   [AM. ARCH. ETH. 

and  the  weasel  and  others  went.  The  magpie  was  "beniti."  He 
could  see  from  inside  his  house  and  know  everything.  He  saw 
that  the  hawk-woman  had  supernatural  power.  She  was  able  to 
kill  a  deer  and  immediately  eat  it  entirely,  leaving  only  the  skin. 
Then  the  wolf  and  Coyote  found  the  woman.  She  gave  them  an 
abundance  of  acorn  mush.  She  also  cooked  dried  deer  meat  for 
them  and  gave  it  to  them  to  take  home.  She  said  to  them:  "Tell 
no  one,  but  when  you  want  more  for  your  children,  come  and 
get  it. "  The  wolf  and  Coyote  arrived  at  night.  Their  poor  little 
children  had  to  eat  the  meat  they  brought  slowly,  so  that  no  one 
would  hear  them.  Nevertheless  the  magpie  knew  it.  Then  the 
people  also  could  smell  the  meat.  Knowing  that  the  two  brothers 
had  meat,  they  watched  at  night.  Then  they  saw  them  return 
and  the  old  woman  get  up,  take  the  meat,  cook  it,  and  all  of 
them  eat.  Then  the  watchers  reported  to  the  others :  ' '  They  are 
killing  deer  but  give  none  of  the  meat  away."  The  eagle  was 
the  chief.  The  dove  was  his  messenger  (winatum).  Thinking 
he  would  ask  advice  of  the  magpie,  the  eagle  sent  the  dove  to 
him.  The  magpie  only  laughed  at  the  messenger.  ' '  Yes,  Coyote 
and  the  wolf  have  found  a  supernatural  woman.  She  lives 
beyond  this  hill.  She  has  more  dried  meat  than  she  can  use. 
She  keeps  the  deer  inside  the  hill  under  ground.  That  is  where 
she  gets  her  meat."  Then  all  the  people  went  to  that  place,  to 
the  woman,  so  that  it  became  necessary  for  her  to  give  them 
meat.  When  Coyote  and  the  wolf  arrived  there  in  the  evening, 
they  found  all  the  people  there  already.  The  weasel,  the  hawk 
called  wakhwukh,  and  others  had  dressed  themselves  finely  in 
order  to  marry  her,  but  she  would  not  have  it.  Finally  all  of 
them  said :  "Let  us  go  home."  They  went,  but  Coyote  lay  there, 
apparently  sick  with  fever  and  chills,  and  unable  to  walk.  The 
woman  said:  "You  go  too."  Coyote  told  her:  "I  am  sick.  I 
cannot.  Perhaps  later  on  I  will  be  able."  Then  the  woman 
made  a  fire  inside  the  house.  Coyote  thought  how  he  might  enter 
it.  He,  too,  had  supernatural  power.  Then  he  wanted  the  wind 
to  blow  the  house  to  pieces.  He  said :  "  Pu ! "  and  a  wind  storm 
came.  It  began  to  tear  the  thatching  from  the  house.  The 
woman  ran  about  trying  to  mend  it  but  could  not.  Then 
Coyote  said :  ' '  Give  me  the  binding  and  I  will  tie  it. ' '  She  did 


VOL.  4]       Kroeber. — Myths  of  South  Central  California.  207 

not  like  to  touch  him,  but  to  save  her  house  she  handed  it  to  him. 
Now  it  was  dark  and  rained.  Coyote  said :  ' '  I  cannot  sleep  here. 
Let  me  sleep  inside  in  the  corner  by  the  door."  But  she  would 
not  let  him.  He  said :  "  I  will  die.  If  you  wish  me  to  freeze  to 
death  let  me  lie  here."  Then  she  allowed  him  to  come  in,  and 
he  lay  near  the  door,  shivering.  She  knew  what  he  wanted.  He 
was  thinking:  "I  want  to  sleep  with  her."  Then  she  said:  "No, 
you  cannot.  You  are  no  good."  Coyote  laughed.  "How  does 
she  know  what  I  think?"  he  thought.  "I  heard  it,"  she  said. 
Coyote  lay  there  and  looked  over  towards  her.  "What  do  you 
want  now?"  she  asked.  Then  Coyote  began  to  think  of  sexual 
intercourse  with  her.  She  did  not  like  that.  She  was  stronger 
than  he  and  overcame  him.  He  could  not  do  anything  to  her. 
He  went  to  sleep  where  he  lay.  Then  at  last  the  woman  began 
to  think  of  him.  At  once  Coyote  knew  it  in  his  sleep.  He  woke 
up  and  said :  ' '  You  want  mine !  I  have  a  good  one ! ' '  She  too 
was  desirous  now  and  let  him  lie  with  her.  But  though  she 
allowed  him  to  embrace  her  she  would  not  let  him  come  nearer. 
She  wanted  once  more  to  try  to  overcome  him.  She  went  out  as 
if  to  urinate,  took  a  rattlesnake,  put  it  into  herself,  and  returned. 
Then  she  spread  herself  and  invited  him.  He  knew  what  she  had 
done.  Also  going  out  to  urinate,  he  by  his  supernatural  power 
obtained  a  stick  of  hard  wood  (takha)  from  the  east.  Putting 
it  on  himself,  he  returned  to  the  woman.  He  approached  the 
stick,  the  rattlesnake  bit  it,  lost  its  teeth,  and  was  harmless. 
Coyote  said:  "Ah!  Now  throw  yours  away  and  I  will  throw 
mine. ' '  She  did  so  and  he  married  her. 

Coyote  had  one  son  from  this  woman,  wech,  the  condor,  who 
was  to  become  a  great  gambler.  At  night  they  put  the  baby  into 
water.  After  three  days  he  could  walk.  Soon  he  was  able  to 
gamble.  Then  he  was  a  man.  Coyote  was  rich,  constantly  mak- 
ing beads  from  bone  and  other  materials,  and  encouraged  his 
son  to  gamble.  Then  the  boy  went  north.  Then  he  saw  a  large 
owl,  hihina,  and  wishing  to  kill  him,  aimed  at  him.  The  owl, 
who  was  a  doctor,  was  angry  and  flew  up  into  a  hollow  tree. 
There  he  began  to  sing : 

Hu     hu     hu          witcailac          min          put-onun 

Ha         ha        ha,          condor  becomes  your  son. 


208  University  of  California  Publications.   [AM.ARCH.ETH. 

As  he  sang  this,  the  young  man  who  had  been  so  handsome 
began  to  have  feathers  all  over  his  body.  His  female  relatives 
who  were  with  him  tried  to  hold  him,  but  they  could  not,  and 
he  turned  into  a  condor.  They  said  to  Coyote:  "Kill  the  owl 
before  he  changes  him  completely ! ' '  But  Coyote  only  cried  and 
did  nothing.  Now  the  young  man  was  entirely  a  condor.  He 
shook  himself,  rose,  and  flew  off.  The  women  followed,  but  he 
flew  away  from  them.  Coyote  returned.  His  wife  knew  what 
had  happened.  Then  she  took  a  rattlesnake  once  more.  This 
time  he  did  not  know  it,  was  bitten,  and  died. 

Now  the  condor  lived  above  and  came  down  to  earth  to  kill 
people  for  food.  He  thought  of  his  mother,  went  to  her,  and 
brought  her  up  with  him.  He  tried  to  make  her,  too,  eat  people, 
but  she  would  not  do  so.  He  brought  two  little  boys  and  a  little 
girl.  These  he  kept  as  pets.  He  called  them  his  dogs.  As  he 
was  about  to  go  off  again  he  told  his  mother :  ' '  Feed  them  well. 
When  I  return  I  will  eat  them. ' '  When  he  was  gone  the  woman 
said  to  the  children : ' '  He  will  kill  us  all.  He  has  nearly  extermin- 
ated the  people  now.  When  he  has  finished  them  he  will  go 
higher  up  in  the  sky.  Then  he  will  come  down  and  eat  us.  When 
he  comes  back  you  must  shoot  him. ' '  She  gave  the  two  boys  bows 
and  arrows.  Then  the  condor  came  back  from  the  earth  below 
and  went  to  drink.  He  drank  half  a  day.  The  two  boys  shot 
at  him,  one  from  each  side.  For  half  a  day  they  shot  as  fast 
as  they  could,  beginning  as  soon  as  he  started  to  drink.  The 
little  girl  kept  dragging  the  arrows  back  to  them  and  they  shot 
them  again  and  again.  The  condor  never  gave  notice,  but  con- 
tinued to  drink.  Now  the  half  day  was  nearly  over.  The  woman 
had  made  a  hole.  She  put  the  children  in,  went  in  herself,  and 
covered  the  hole.  Then  the  condor  stopped  drinking.  Now  he 
began  to  feel  something.  Leaving  the  dead  bodies  he  had  brought 
with  him,  he  started  upward.  His  mother  said:  "If  he  flies 
straight,  he  will  reach  the  place  above,  and  it  will  be  the  end  of 
us.  But  if  he  flies  to  the  side  and  zigzags  and  falls,  he  will  be 
killed."  He  flew  straight  up.  He  was  already  nearly  out  of 
sight.  Then  suddenly  he  shot  to  one  side,  zigzagged,  dropped, 
struck,  and  was  dead.  They  burned  him.  Then  his  eyes  burst 
and  flew  out  and  were  lost  in  the  brush.  If  they  had  been  able 


VOL.  4]      Kroeber. — Myths  of  South  Central  California.  209 

to  find  the  eyes  and  put  them  back  in  the  fire  there  would  have 
been  no  condors  in  the  world. 

Then  the  woman  and  the  little  girl  went  down  from  the  sky 
on  a  rope  of  down  feathers,  going  through  the  hole  in  the  sky 
through  which  the  condor  used  to  pass.  The  two  boys  went 
southward  in  the  sky  until  they  came  to  where  the  sky  and  the 
earth  meet.  There  they  descended  to  the  earth.  Then  they  came 
to  people  without  mouths,  who  neither  talked  nor  ate.  They 
killed  deer,  roasted  them,  smelled  of  the  meat,  and  threw  it 
out-doors.  In  the  same  way  they  only  smelled  of  their  acorn 
mush.  The  two  boys  came  to  them,  entered  the  house,  took  hold 
of  the  meat  that  was  cooking,  and  began  to  eat.  The  people  there 
made  a  protesting  gesture,  meaning :  ' '  Do  not.  It  will  come  out 
from  you, ' '  again  indicating  by  a  gesture.  Neverthless  the  boys 
ate.  Then  they  asked  the  chief:  "Have  you  a  tongue  inside?" 
He  shook  his  head.  "Have  you  teeth?"  Again  he  shook  his 
head.  Then  they  offered  to  try  to  cut  open  a  mouth  for  one  of 
them  so  that  he  would  be  like  themselves  and  could  eat.  It  was 
agreed  and  the  two  boys  took  obsidian  and  cut  a  mouth  for  one 
of  those  people.  Soon  the  man  could  eat  and  talk.  Then  he  said : 

T-ipmii      pamii      tciciii      nah'eii      lukinii      bidikii 

Supernatural-ones   arrived,  cut,  ate,  belly-filled,      defecated. 

He  spoke  thus  because  he  could  not  talk  yet  correctly.  If 
he  had  spoken  right  he  would  have  said : 

T-ipni          panac          tcicmi          nah'ac          lokonoc 

Then  this  man  cut  mouths  for  others,  and  they  cut  still  others, 
and  so  they  did  to  each  other  until  all  could  eat  and  talk.  The 
two  boys  returned  home. 

15. — TRUHOHI  YOKUTS.    THE  BEGINNING  OF  THE  WORLD. 

Told  by  a  Tachi  Yokuts. 

Far  in  the  south  was  a  mountain.  It  was  the  only  land. 
Everything  else  was  water.  The  eagle  was  the  chief.  The  people 
had  nothing  to  eat.  They  were  eating  the  earth  and  it  was  nearly 
gone.  Then  Coyote  said:  "Can  we  not  obtain  earth?  Can  we 
not  make  mountains?"  The  eagle  said:  "I  do  not  know  how." 


210  University  of  California  Publications.   [AM.ARCH.ETH. 

Coyote  said:  "There  is  a  man  that  we  will  ask."  Then  they 
got  the  magpie.  The  eagle  said :  ' '  Can  we  obtain  earth  ? ' '  The 
magpie  said:  "Yes."  "Where?"  "Right  below  us."  Then 
all  the  ducks  dived  and  tried  to  bring  up  the  earth.  Some  were 
gone  half  a  day.  They  could  not  reach  the  bottom  and  died  and 
floated  up.  The  eagle  said:  "When  you  reach  the  ground  take 
hold  of  it  and  bite  it,  and  fill  your  nose  and  ears. ' '  For  six  days 
they  dived  and  found  nothing.  There  was  only  one  more  to  go 
down,  the  mudhen.  Then  the  eagle  said:  "Now  you  go  Let 
us  see  if  you  can  find  the  earth. ' '  The  mudhen  said :  ' '  Good. ' ' 
Then  it  dived.  It  was  gone  for  a  day  and  a  night.  In  the  morn- 
ing it  came  up.  It  was  dead.  They  looked  it  over.  It  had  earth 
in  its  nails,  its  ears,  and  its  nose.  Then  they  made  the  earth 
from  this  ground.  They  mixed  it  with  chiyu  seeds  and  from 
this  they  made  the  earth.  After  six  days  the  eagle  said  to  the 
wolf:  "Now  go  around."  Then  the  wolf  went  where  the  Sierra 
Nevada  now  is  and  around  to  the  west  and  came  back  along 
where  the  Coast  Range  is.  The  eagle  said :  "  Do  not  touch  it  for 
six  days.  Let  it  dry  first."  All  the  people  said:  "Very  well, 
we  will  let  it  become  dry."  But  soon  Coyote  said:  "I  will  try 
it.  It  is  getting  hard  now. ' '  He  traveled  along  where  the  Sierras 
are.  That  is  why  these  are  rough  and  broken  now.  It  is  from 
his  running  over  the  soft  earth.  Then  he  turned  west  and  went 
back  along  the  Coast  Range.  That  is  why  there  are  mountains 
there  also.  Coyote  made  it  so.  Now  the  eagle  sent  out  the  prairie 
falcon  and  the  raven  (Khotoi).  He  told  them:  "Go  around  the 
world  and  see  if  the  earth  is  hard  yet. ' '  Then  the  prairie  falcon 
went  north  along  the  Sierra  Nevada  and  Khotoi  went  north  along 
the  Coast  Range.  Each  came  back  the  way  he  had  gone.  Now 
at  first  the  Sierra  Nevada  was  not  so  high  as  the  Coast  Range. 
When  the  two  returned  the  eagle  said :  ' '  How  is  the  earth  ?  Is 
it  hard?"  "Yes,"  they  said.  Then  the  prairie  falcon  said: 
"Look  at  my  mountains.  They  are  the  highest,  "but  Khotoi  said: 
"No,  mine  are  higher."  The  prairie  falcon  said:  "No,  yours 
do  not  amount  to  anything.  They  are  low."  Then  the  eagle 
and  Coyote  sent  the  people  to  different  places.  They  said:  "You 
go  to  that  place  with  your  people.  You  go  to  that  spring. ' '  So 
they  sent  them  off,  and  the  people  went  to  the  different  places 


VOL.  4]      Kroeber. — Mytlis  of  South  Central  California.  211 

where  they  are  now.  They  were  still  animals,  but  they  became 
people.  For  a  little  while  after  they  had  all  gone  the  eagle  and 
Coyote  stayed  there.  Then  Coyote  said :  ' '  Where  will  you  go  ? " 
The  eagle  said :  "  I  am  thinking  about  it.  I  think  I  will  go  up. ' ' 
Coyote  said:  "Where  shall  I  live?"  The  eagle  said:  "Here." 
But  Coyote  said:  "No,  I  will  go  with  you."  The  eagle  told 
him :  ' '  No,  you  must  stay  here.  You  will  have  to  look  after  this 
place  here."  So  they  talked  for  six  days.  Then  the  eagle  took 
all  his  things.  "Goodby,"  he  said,  "I  am  going."  Then  he 
went.  Coyote  looked  up.  He  said:  "I  am  going  too."  "You 
have  no  wings.  You  cannot, ' '  said  the  eagle.  ' '  I  will  go, ' '  said 
Coyote,  and  he  went.  Now  they  are  together  in  the  sky  above. 

16. — TjtuHom  YOKUTS.    THE  THEFT  OF  FIRE. 

Told  by  a  Tachi  Yokuts. 

There  was  no  fire.  It  was  very  cold.  Then  the  eagle  told 
the  roadrunner  and  the  fox  to  go  out.  These  two  were  good  run- 
ners. Coyote  said:  "Let  the  crow  go.  He  is  good  at  looking 
about. ' '  The  eagle  said :  ' '  They  are  better ; ' '  but  he  let  the  crow 
go.  Then  Coyote  said:  "I  am  going  too,"  though  the  eagle 
wanted  him  to  stay.  Then  the  eagle  told  the  crow :  ' '  Start  early. 
If  you  see  fire  anywhere  tell  us. ' '  Late  in  the  day  the  crow  saw 
fire  in  the  wrest.  He  came  back  and  said : ' '  They  have  fire  there. ' ' 
Then  the  eagle  sent  out  the  roadrunner  and  the  fox.  Coyote  and 
the  crow  went  with  them.  They  wrent  directly  north  along  the 
Coast  Range.  Before,  when  the  crow  had  gone  alone,  he  first 
went  eastward  and  then  north  and  then  to  the  west  and  back 
south.  Now  Coyote  said :  ' '  Wait  until  the  sun  is  .down.  Then 
we  will  steal  it."  They  agreed.  Now  it  was  dark  in  the  west. 
Then  Coyote  said:  "Now  they  are  all  asleep."  The  crow  said: 
"We  will  not  all  go  there.  Let  one  who  can  jump  well  take  the 
fire.  You,  fox,  go."  Coyote  said:  "I  will  go  too.  I  am  a  good 
jumper  too."  The  crow  said:  "No,  we  will  be  killed."  But 
Coyote  said :  ' '  No,  we  are  all  good  runners.  And  I  will  take  the 
fire.  Even  if  you  come  with  me  it  is  I  who  will  take  the  fire. ' ' 
Then  they  came  to  one  end  of  the  village.  ' '  Here  is  good  fire, ' ' 
they  said.  They  took  fire,  and  put  it  in  a  net-sack.  Then  Coyote 


212  University  of  California  Publications.   [AM.ARCH.ETH. 

told  them:  "Run  ahead.  I  am  going  to  kill  this  little  one." 
"No,  do  not,"  said  the  fox.  "Yes,  I  will,"  said  Coyote.  Then 
the  fox  and  the  others  went  ahead.  Coyote  took  the  child,  threw 
it  in  the  fire,  and  killed  it.  Then  he  leaped  out  of  the  house  and 
ran.  It  was  another  coyote  who  was  living  there.  He  called  out : 
"Take  care!  Someone  has  come !"  Now  as  the  fire-stealers  ran, 
their  path  was  the  San  Joaquin  river.  The  fog  ( ? ) ,  gumun,  and 
a  duck,  wolwul,  pursued  them.  Coyote  jumped  from  side  to  side 
and  the  pursuers  ran  here  and  there  after  him.  That  is  why 
the  river  is  crooked.  They  kept  on  running  southward.  Then 
Coyote  reached  his  sweat-house.  He  entered  and  closed  it.  They 
could  not  catch  him.  He  had  the  fire  inside.  He  had  succeeded 
in  taking  it  away  from  them.  Then  in  the  morning  they  made 
fire  there.  From  that  day  they  had  fire  and  were  well  off. 

17. — TjiuHOHi  YOKUTS.    THE  ORIGIN  OF  DEATH. 

Told  by  a  Tachi  Yokuts. 

There  were  two  insects,  Shoyo  and  Kokwiteit.1  The  latter 
was  a  chief.  He  did  not  want  many  people  to  live.  He  gathered 
the  people  and  said:  "We  will  go.  I  do  not  know  where.  We 
must  go  somewhere.  It  will  fill  up.  It  is  best  if  we  make  it  that 
medicine-men  will  kill  people.  Then  there  will  be  a  great  ceremony 
for  the  dead."  Coyote  liked  that.  The  others  did  not  like  it. 
Coyote  said:  "When  a  chief  or  one  of  his  family  dies  we  will 
go  to  his  village.  We  will  have  a  great  gathering.  We  will 
dance  and  enjoy  ourselves."  Then  the  people  liked  the  idea. 
But  it  was  Kokwiteit  who  was  the  cause.  So  now,  here  in  this 
world,  if  one  meets  a  kokwiteit  in  the  road,  people  say:  "There 
will  be  too  many ;  let  us  kill  him. ' '  So  they  kill  him.  Shoyo  did 
not  want  people  to  die,  but  Kokwiteit  made  it  that  they  do. 

18. — TACHI  YOKUTS.    THE  OWNERS  OF  THE  SUN. 

In  the  Tachi  territory  in  the  Coast  Range  is  a  circle  of  large 
rocks.  These  are  certain  people  who  had  the  sun.  They  kept  it 
in  the  middle  of  the  circle,  just  above  their  heads.  Coyote  and 

1  C  •  oyo,  nearly  Shroyo ;  the  t  'a  in  Kokwiteit  are  palatal,  approaching  ch. 
Kokwiteit  resembles  the  word  for  raven  in  other  dialects. 


VOL.  4]       Kroeber.— Myths  of  South  Central  California.  213 

the  eagle  took  it  away  from  them.  Then  they  became  ashamed 
and  turned  to  stone.  If  one  speaks  to  them  now,  they  still 
answer;  but  it  is  hard  to  reach  that  place,  for  they  do  not  like 
to  be  seen  by  anyone,  and  when  one  approaches  it  he  meets  wind 
and  rain. 

19. — TACHI  YOKUTS.    THE  RACE  OF  THE  ANTELOPE  AND  DEER. 

The  antelope  and  the  deer  were  together.  The  antelope  said : 
' '  I  can  beat  you  running. ' '  The  deer  said :  "  I  think  not. ' '  The 
antelope  said : ' '  Well,  let  us  try. ' '  The  deer  said : ' '  We  shall  run 
for  six  days, ' '  and  the  antelope  agreed.  The  deer  said :  ' '  Let  us 
go  south  and  run  northward. ' '  Then  they  went  far  to  the  south 
"across  the  ocean"  (or  Tulare  Lake),  in  order  to  run  northward 
to  the  end  of  the  world.  The  antelope  said:  "This  will  be  my 
path  on  the  west  here.  You  take  the  path  on  the  east."  The 
deer  agreed.  Then  they  started.  Their  path  was  the  milky  way. 
On  the  side  where  the  antelope  ran  there  is  a  wide  path ;  on  the 
other  side  there  are  patches.  That  is  where  the  deer  jumped. 
The  antelope  had  said:  "If  I  win,  all  this  will  be  my  country 
and  you  will  have  to  hide  in  the  brush. ' '  The  deer  said :  ' '  Very 
well,  and  if  I  win  it  will  be  the  same  for  me."  Then  they  ran 
and  the  antelope  won.  So  now  he  has  the  plains  to  live  in,  but 
the  deer  hides  in  the  brush. 

20. — TACHI  YOKUTS.     THE  PLEIADES. 

The  Pleiades  were  five  girls  and  a  flea,  baakil.  The  girls  sang 
and  played  all  night  in  the  sky.  The  flea  constantly  went  with 
them.  They  did  not  like  other  men  that  came  to  them;  they 
liked  only  him.  When  other  men  came  they  ran  away,  but  the 
flea  went  with  them.  And  they  let  him  marry  them.  He  mar- 
ried all  five.  Now  he  turned  into  a  flea,  and  in  summer  became 
sick  with  the  itch.  The  girls  did  not  like  him  any  longer.  They 
said :  ' '  Let  us  run  away.  Where  shall  we  go  ? "  Then  they  agreed 
to  go  east  together.  ' '  When  shall  we  go  ? "  they  said.  ' '  As  soon 
as  he  sleeps."  Now  the  flea  slept  and  the  five  got  up  and  went 
off.  After  they  were  far  away  the  flea  woke  up  and  thought: 
"Where  are  my  wives?"  He  found  that  they  had  gone  away. 


214  University  of  California  Publications.   [AM.ARCH.ETH. 

He  thought:  ''Where  shall  I  go?"  He  went  east.  At  last  he 
came  in  sight  of  them,  just  before  he  reached  the  ocean.  He  said : 
' '  I  will  catch  you. ' '  They  said :  ' '  He  is  coming.  Let  us  go  on. ' ' 
They  ran  on  again.  Then  one  asked :  "  Do  you  see  him  again  ? ' ' 
Another  said:  "Yes,  he  is  near."  Then  they  said:  "Let  us  go 
up  into  the  air.  Then  he  cannot  come  with  us."  Then  they 
went  up.  But  the  man  rose,  too.  That  is  why  there  are  five  stars 
close  together  now  in  the  Pleiades  and  one  at  the  side.  That  one 
is  he,  the  flea.1 

21. — TACHI  YOKUTS.    THE  WOLF  AND  THE  CRANE. 

The  wolf  constantly  hunted,  but  never  gave  his  wife  and  two 
boys  any  meat.  Once  in  the  morning  he  went  hunting.  Then  his 
wife,  the  crane,  ran  off.  He  returned  and  found  her  gone.  He 
followed  her.  He  was  angry  and  wanted  to  kill  her.  He  saw 
her  and  tried  to  shoot  her,  but  she  was  high  up  in  the  air.  Slowly 
she  settled  and  at  last  lit  far  off.  Then  he  shot  and  hit  her.  He 
went  to  her.  With  her  bill  she  tried  to  stab  him.  He  used  an 
arrow  to  ward  off  her  blows,  and  tried  to  stab  her.  Then  she 
pierced  his  breast  and  knocked  him  down.  She  stabbed  him  again 
and  again,  until  she  killed  him.  Then  she  went  off  with  her  boys. 
They  turned  into  stars  in  the  sky.  She  is  in  advance;  her  two 
boys  are  following  her.  They  are  called  yibish,  the  three  stars 
of  Orion. 

22. — TACHI  YOKUTS.  THE  BALD  EAGLE  AND  THE  PRAIRIE  FALCON. 

At  a  mountain  southwest  from  the  north  end  of  Tulare  Lake 
the  ground  is  red  and  white.  There  the  bald  eagle,  owik,  lived. 
He  used  to  take  away  men's  wives.  If  they  became  angry  he 
killed  them.  The  prairie  falcon,  limik,  lived  farther  north  in 
the  Coast  Range  with  the  Tachi.  The  eagle  took  away  his  wife. 
Then  the  prairie  falcon  pursued  him.  He  fought  him.  He  broke 
his  head  with  a  rock  and  killed  him.  The  bald  eagle 's  brains  and 
blood  turned  the  ground  white  and  red. 

1  The  Yaudanchi  have  a  myth  about  the  Pleiades.  They  say  that  they 
were  girls  who  rose  to  the  sky.  One  was  pregnant  and  could  not  rise.  She 
turned  to  a  rock.  One  or  more  stars  near  them  are  young  men  who  followed 
them. 


VOL.  4]       Kroeber. — Myths  of  South  Central  California.  215 

23. — TACHI  YOKUTS.    THE  THUNDER  TWINS. 

All  the  land  in  the  plains  north  of  Tulare  Lake  where  the 
Tachi  lived  in  summer  was  burned  bare.  Nothing  was  growing 
there,  no  seeds  and  no  tule.  The  people  were  starving.  In  the 
mountains  to  the  west,  where  the  Tachi  lived  in  winter,  there  were 
two  little  boys,  twins.  They  were  covered  with  sores  and  stank. 
Whenever  they  had  finished  eating,  their  father  whipped  them  out 
of  the  house.  They  came  back  crying,  but  their  parents  took  no 
pity  on  them.  Only  their  grandmother  took  care  of  them.  Now 
the  chief  of  the  people  in  the  plains  said  to  his  people :  "  Go  about 
the  land  and  see  if  you  cannot  find  food.  We  will  move  wherever 
anything  is  growing. ' '  Then  runners  went  southwestward.  There 
they  found  a  high  mountain  and  near  it  a  little  lake,  which  is 
now  dry.  There  were  tule  roots  and  seeds  to  be  had  there  and 
the  people  moved  there.  Now  the  father  and  mother  of  the  two 
boys  abandoned  them.  But  their  grandmother  stayed  with  them 
and  cried  over  them.  For  two  years  they  lived  in  this  way. 
Sometimes  the  old  woman  found  a  few  tule  roots,  and  with  these 
she  fed  the  boys  and  they  grew.  Now,  when  they  were  two  years 
older,  they  no  longer  wanted  to  eat  anything.  They  turned  into 
thunders.  At  a  high  mountain  west  of  the  north  end  of  the  lake 
is  a  spring.  There  the  boys  went  and  there  they  are  living  now. 
They  told  their  grandmother:  "Grandmother,  next  month  we 
shall  have  many  fish  from  that  water."  Then  in  a  month  the 
spring  was  full  of  fish.  They  caught  them  and  dried  them.  The 
boys  did  not  eat  any  of  them,  for  they  had  turned  into  super- 
natural beings.  Now  their  mother's  brother,  who  had  gone  away 
with  their  parents,  came  back,  bringing  the  boys  a  little  food. 
Then  they  shot  him.  They  nearly  killed  him,  but  cured  him 
again.  He  told  them:  "When  your  father  and  your  mother 
come,  kill  them."  Then  he  went  back  with  the  fish  which  they 
had  given  him.  When  he  returned,  he  told  the  people:  "They 
are  well  off  now.  They  have  much  to  eat."  Then  the  boys' 
father  and  mother  went  there  with  other  people.  The  boys 
shot  at  them  and  killed  their  parents  and  those  that  went 
with  them.  Next  day  those  of  the  people  who  had  not  yet  gone, 
said :  ' '  Perhaps  they  were  given  many  fish  and  that  is  why  they 


216  University  of  California  Publications.   [AM.ARCH.ETH. 

did  not  come  back  last  night."  But  their 'mother's  brother  told 
them  why  they  should  not  go  to  that  place.  So  the  remainder 
of  the  people  stayed  where  they  were  and  were  not  killed.  The 
mountain  where  the  thunder  twins  live  is  called  chenhali. 

24. — TACHI  YOKUTS.    THE  VISIT  TO  THE  DEAD. 

A  Tachi  had  a  fine  wife  who  died  and  was  buried.  Her  hus- 
band went  to  her  grave  and  dug  a  hole  near  it.  There  he  stayed 
watching,  not  eating,  using  only  tobacco.  After  two  nights  he 
saw  that  she  came  up,  brushed  the  earth  off  herself,  and  started 
to  go  to  the  island  of  the  dead.  The  man  tried  to  seize  her  but 
could  not  hold  her.  She  went  southeast  and  he  followed  her. 
Whenever  he  tried  to  hold  her  she  escaped.  He  kept  trying  to 
seize  her,  however,  and  delayed  her.  At  daybreak  she  stopped. 
He  stayed  there,  but  could  not  see  her.  When  it  began  to  be 
dark  the  woman  got  up  again  and  went  on.  She  turned  westward 
and  crossed  Tulare  Lake  (or  its  inlet).  At  daybreak  the  man 
again  tried  to  seize  her  but  could  not  hold  her.  She  stayed  in 
that  place  during  the  day.  The  man  remained  in  the  same  place, 
but  again  he  could  not  see  her.  There  was  a  good  trail  there, 
and  he  could  see  the  footprints  of  his  dead  friends  and  relatives. 
In  the  evening  his  wife  got  up  again  and  went  on.  They  came 
to  a  river  which  flows  westward  toward  San  Luis  Obispo,  the 
river  of  the  Tulamni  (the  description  fits  the  Santa  Maria,  but  the 
Tulamni  are  in  the  Tulare  drainage,  on  and  about  Buena  Vista 
lake).  There  the  man  caught  up  with  his  wife  and  there 
they  stayed  all  day.  He  still  had  had  nothing  to  eat.  In  the  even- 
ing she  went  on  again,  now  northward.  Then  somewhere  to  the 
west  of  the  Tachi  country  he  caught  up  with  her  once  more  and 
they  spent  the  day  there.  In  the  evening  the  woman  got  up  and 
they  went  on  northward,  across  the  San  Joaquin  river,  to  the 
north  or  east  of  it.  Again  he  overtook  his  wife.  Then  she  said : 
' '  What  are  you  going  to  do  ?  I  am  nothing  now.  How  can  you 
get  my  body  back?  Do  you  think  you  shall  be  able  to  do  it?" 
He  said :  "  I  think  so. ' '  She  said :  "  I  think  not.  I  am  going  to. 
a  different  kind  of  a  place  now."  From  daybreak  on  that  man 
stayed  there.  In  the  evening  the  woman  started  once  more  and 


VOL.  4]       Kroeber.— Myths  of  South  Central  California.  217 

went  down  along  the  river ;  but  he  overtook  her  again.  She  did 
not  talk  to  him.  Then  they  stayed  all  day,  and  at  night  went 
on  again.  Now  they  were  close  to  the  island  of  the  dead.  It 
was  joined  to  the  land  by  a  rising  and  falling  bridge  called 
ch  'eleli.  Under  this  bridge  a  river  ran  swiftly.  The  dead  passed 
over  this.  When  they  were  on  the  bridge,  a  bird  suddenly  flut- 
tered up  beside  them  and  frightened  them.  Many  fell  off  into 
the  river,  where  they  turned  into  fish.  Now  the  chief  of  the  dead 
said:  "Somebody  has  come."  They  told  him:  "There  are  two. 
One  of  them  is  alive;  he  stinks."  The  chief  said:  "Do  not  let 
him  cross. ' '  When  the  woman  came  on  the  island,  he  asked  her : 
"You  have  a  companion?"  and  she  told  him:  "Yes,  my  hus- 
band. ' '  He  asked  her :  "Is  he  coming  here ? ' '  She  said :  "I  do 
not  know.  He  is  alive. ' '  They  asked  the  man :  ' '  Do  you  want 
to  come  to  this  country?"  He  said:  "Yes."  Then  they  told 
him:  "Wait.  I  will  see  the  chief."  They  told  the  chief :" He 
says  that  he  wants  to  come  to  this  country.  We  think  he  does 
not  tell  the  truth."  "Well,  let  him  come  across."  Now  they 
intended  to  frighten  him  off  the  bridge.  They  said :  ' '  Come  on. 
The  chief  says  you  can  cross."  Then  the  bird  (kacha)  flew  up 
and  tried  to  scare  him,  but  did  not  make  him  fall  off  the  bridge 
into  the  water.  So  they  brought  him  before  the  chief.  The 
chief  said :  ' '  This  is  a  bad  country.  You  should  not  have  come. 
We  have  only  your  wife's  soul  (ilit).  She  has  left  her  bones 
with  her  body.  I  do  not  think  we  can  give  her  back  to  you." 
In  the  evening  they  danced.  It  was  a  round  dance  and  they 
shouted.  The  chief  said  to  the  man:  "Look  at  your  wife  in 
the  middle  of  the  crowd.  To-morrow  you  will  see  no  one. ' '  Now 
the  man  stayed  there  three  days.  Then  the  chief  said  to  some 
of  the  people :  ' '  Bring  that  woman.  Her  husband  wants  to  talk 
to  her."  They  brought  the  woman  to  him.  He  asked  her:  "Is 
this  your  husband?"  She  said:  "Yes."  He  asked  her:  "Do 
you  think  you  will  go  back  to  him ? ' '  She  said :  "I  do  not  think 
so.  What  do  you  wish?"  The  chief  said:  "I  think  not.  You 
must  stay  here.  You  cannot  go  back.  You  are  worthless  now." 
Then  he  said  to  the  man :  "Do  you  want  to  sleep  with  your 
wife?"  He  said:  "Yes,  for  a  while.  I  want  to  sleep  with  her 
and  talk  with  her. ' '  Then  he  was  allowed  to  sleep  with  her  that 


218  University  of  California  Publications.   [AM.ARCH.ETH. 

night  and  they  talked  together.  At  daybreak  the  woman  was 
vanished  and  he  was  sleeping  next  to  a  fallen  oak.  The  chief 
said  to  him:  "Get  up.  It  is  late."  He  opened  his  eyes  and  saw 
an  oak  instead  of  his  wife.  The  chief  said :  ' '  You  see  that  we 
cannot  make  your  wife  as  she  was.  She  is  no  good  now.  It  is 
best  that  you  go  back.  You  have  a  good  country  there."  But 
the  man  said :  ' '  No,  I  will  stay. ' '  The  chief  told  him :  ' '  No,  do 
not.  Come  back  here  whenever  you  like,  but  go  back  now." 
Nevertheless  the  man  stayed  there  six  days.  Then  he  said :  "  I 
am  going  back."  Then  in  the  morning  he  started  to  go  home. 
The  chief  told  him:  "When  you  arrive,  hide  yourself.  Then 
after  six  days  emerge  and  make  a  dance. ' '  Now  the  man  returned. 
He  told  his  parents:  "Make  me  a  small  house.  In  six  days  I 
will  come  out  and  dance. ' '  Now  he  stayed  there  five  days.  Then 
his  friends  began  to  know  that  he  had  come  back.  "Our  rela- 
tive has  come  back,"  they  all  said.  Now  the  man  was  in  too 
much  of  a  hurry.  After  five  days  he  came  out.  In  the  evening 
he  began  to  dance  and  danced  all  night,  telling  what  he  saw.  In 
the  morning,  when  he  had  stopped  dancing,  he  went  to  bathe. 
Then  a  rattlesnake  bit  him.  He  died.  So  he  went  back  to  the 
island.  He  is  there  now.  It  is  through  him  that  the  people  know 
how  it  is  there.  Every  two  days  the  island  becomes  full.  Then 
the  chief  gathers  the  people.  "You  must  swim,"  he  says.  The 
people  stop  dancing  and  bathe.  Then  the  bird  frightens  them, 
and  some  turn  to  fish,  and  some  to  ducks ;  only  a  few  come  out 
of  the  water  again  as  people.  In  this  way  room  is  made  when 
the  island  is  too  full.  The  name  of  the  chief  there  is  Kandjidji. 

25. — WUKCHAMNI  YOKUTS.    THE  BEGINNING  OF  THE  WORLD. 

Told  by  a  Yaudanchi  Yokuts. 

Everything  was  water  except  a  very  small  piece  of  ground. 
On  this  were  the  eagle  and  Coyote.  Then  the  turtle  swam  to 
them.  They  sent  it  to  dive  for  the  earth  at  the  bottom  of  the 
water.  The  turtle  barely  succeeded  in  reaching  the  bottom  and 
touching  it  with  its  foot.  When  it  came  up  again,  all  the  earth 
seemed  washed  out.  Coyote  looked  closely  at  its  nails.  At  last 
he  found  a  grain  of  earth.  Then  he  and  the  eagle  took  this  and 


VOL.  4]       Kroeber. — Myths  of  South  Central  California.  219 

laid  it  down.  From  it  they  made  the  earth  as  large  as  it  is. 
From  the  earth  they  also  made  six  men  and  six  women.  They 
sent  these  out  in  pairs  in  different  directions  and  the  people  sep- 
arated. After  a  time  the  eagle  sent  the  Coyote  to  see  what  the 
people  were  doing.  Coyote  came  back  and  said:  "They  are 
doing  something  bad.  They  are  eating  the  earth.  One  side  is 
already  gone."  The  eagle  said:  "That  is  bad.  Let  us  make 
something  for  them  to  eat.  Let  us  send  the  dove  to  find  some- 
thing."  The  dove  went  out.  It  found  a  single  grain  of  meal. 
The  eagle  and  Coyote  put  this  down  on  the  ground.  Then  the 
earth  became  covered  with  seeds  and  fruit.  Now  they  told  the 
people  to  eat  these.  When  the  seeds  were  dry  and  ripe  the  people 
gathered  them.  Then  the  people  increased  and  spread  all  over. 
But  the  water  is  still  under  the  world. 

26. — YAUDANCHI  YOKUTS.    THE  ORIGIN  OP  FIRE. 

The  people  in  the  foothills  had  no  fire.  Only  to  the  west  in 
the  plains  was  there  a  man  who  had  fire,  and  he  had  it  all.  Now 
when  he  slept,  the  antelope,  selected  for  its  swiftness,  was  sent  to 
steal  his  fire.  It  took  it  and  fled.  It  was  again  in  sight  of  the 
place  from  which  it  had  started,  when  a  rain  came  which  put 
out  the  fire.  Then  others  tried  to  bring  it.  The  last  was  the 
jackrabbit.  After  he  had  stolen  the  fire,  he  hid  in  a  thick  brush, 
shek'ei.  There  he  burrowed.  Then  he  crouched  over  the  fire, 
holding  it  in  his  hands  under  his  belly.  From  this  the  palms  of 
his  hands  are  black.  When  he  stole  the  fire  it  was  not  extin- 
guished ;  and  so  he  obtained  it  for  the  people. 

27. — YAUDANCHI  YOKUTS.    THE  EAGLE  AND  THE  CONDOR. 

The  eagle  was  chief.  The  condor  did  not  like  him.  He  tried 
to  supersede  him  as  chief.  Flying  high  in  the  air,  he  saw  a 
bloody  deer  on  the  ground.  ' '  Now  I  will  have  something  to  eat, ' ' 
he  thought.  He  lit  and  began  to  peck  at  the  deer.  The  eagle, 
hidden  under  the  brush  on  which  the  deer  was  lying,  caught 
him  by  the  foot.  "Now  I  have  you!  I  will  kill  you,"  he  said. 
The  condor  said :  ' '  Let  me  go.  You  can  be  chief  again.  I  will 
go  away. ' '  Then  the  eagle  released  him  and  was  chief  once  more. 


220  University  of  California  Publications.   [AM.ARCH.ETH. 

28. — YAUDANCHI  YOKUTS.    THE  EAGLE'S  SON. 

The  eagle  had  a  boy.  He  said  to  him :  "  Do  not  go  over  that 
hill."  The  boy  grew  up.  One  day,  saying:  "I  am  just  going 
off  somewhere,"  he  went  over  the  hill.  When  he  came  back  he 
said  to  his  grandmother :  "  I  saw  something  on  the  other  side  of 
that  hill."  "What  did  you  see?"  she  asked.  "Many  people," 
he  said.  Next  day  he  went  over  again.  Then  a  number  of  girls 
who  were  gathering  clover  saw  him.  They  were  the  woodpecker, 
the  bluejay,  the  quail,  the  mountain  quail,  and  the  rat.  When 
he  came  near  them  they  spat  on  him  the  clover  they  were  eating 
and  ran  off.  The  boy  went  toward  the  house  in  that  place. 
Coyote  who  was  there  prepared  to  shoot  him.  Moving  his  hand 
over  his  mouth  he  shouted :  ' '  Wuwuwuwuwuwu !  Some  one  is 
coming."  The  boy  was  carrying  arrows  also,  but  did  not  take 
them  out  of  his  quiver.  Coyote  came  near  him,  drew  his  bow, 
and  shot.  He  missed  the  boy.  Then  the  dog,  the  right  side  of 
whose  face  was  black,  shot.  He  missed  also.  When  the  two  saw 
that  they  could  not  hit  the  boy,  they  said  to  him:  "Come,  my 
friend,  sit  here. ' '  Then  he  came  and  sat  down  with  them.  When 
he  said:  "I  must  go,"  Coyote  told  him:  "Well,  come  again." 
The  boy  returned  home.  He  told  his  father:  "I  have  been  to 
see  people  over  the  hill.  I  want  to  go  again  to-morrow. ' '  Then 
the  eagle  said :  "  Do  not  go.  You  will  be  killed. ' '  The  boy  told 
him:  "They  have  already  tried  to  kill  me."  Next  day  he  went 
again.  He  came  to  the  same  place  and  the  girls  were  there  as 
before.  He  was  dressed  beautifully  now.  He  looked  so  fine  that 
the  girls  did  not  know  him  again.  This  time  they  tried  to 
embrace  him.  They  were  so  jealous  that  they  were  ready  to  fight 
one  another.  They  all  went  to  where  he  lived.  All  of  them  had 
long  hair  and  were  beautiful;  and  each  came  carrying  a  load 
of  food.  The  bluejay  went  into  the  house  and  said  to  the  boy's 
grandmother:  "Go  outside  and  get  my  load.  I  have  brought 
something  to  eat.  I  want  to  live  with  this  young  man. ' '  The  old 
woman  did  not  bring  it  in.  All  the  girls  came  in,  one  after 
another,  and  each  told  the  old  woman  to  take  her  food  inside, 
but  she  did  not  do  it.  Then  the  woodpecker  came  in.  She  was 
the  only  one  of  them  who  had  not  spit  on  the  boy  when  he  first 


VOL.  4]      Kroeber. — Myths  of  South  Central  California.  221 

came  to  them.  When  she  said  to  the  old  woman :  ' '  Bring  in  my 
load.  I  want  to  live  here,"  the  old  woman  said:  "Yes,"  and 
carried  it  in.  Then  the  other  girls  were  angry,  and  struck  the 
woodpecker  on  the  head,  and  the  blood  that  came  is  the  red  that 
is  now  on  the  woodpecker's  head.  Then  the  woodpecker  threw 
ashes  on  the  bluejay,  and  made  her  blue.  She  threw  fire  on  the 
mountain  quail,  which  therefore  is  spotted  with  red.  She  rubbed 
charcoal  on  the  quail,  from  which  its  head  is  black,  and  she  threw 
fire  on  the  rat,  from  which  this  has  a  reddish  belly.  Then  the 
woodpecker  lived  there.  After  a  time  the  young  man  went  over 
the  hill  again.  He  went  to  fight  Coyote  and  the  black-faced  dog. 
He  shot  both  and  killed  them.  Then  the  eagle  said  to  him:  "Let 
us  go  and  kill  all  of  them."  Then  those  people  all  fled  and  scat- 
tered over  the  country. 

29. — YAUDANCHI  YOKUTS.    THE  PRAIRIE  FALCON  FiGHTS.1 

Long  ago  the  prairie  falcon  (limik)  lived  alone.  He  came 
to  a  village.  He  returned.  Then  he  went  again.  He  reached 
a  rock.  He  sat  on  top  of  it  and  laid  his  bow  down  on  it.  Then 
he  thought :  "  It  will'  be  good  if  I  kill  them. ' '  He  started  again. 
Then  he  began  the  fight.  He  shot  at  them.  At  once  the  people 
there  all  became  angry.  There  was  a  great  battle.  He  killed 
them  all.  Then  he  hung  up  the  hair  of  the  killed  on  trees.  It 
can  be  seen  still  (as  moss)  at  a  place  called  khodomo  (probably 
in  the  territory  of  the  Shoshonean  Tiibatulabal  or  Pitanisha). 


30. — YAUDANCHI  YOKUTS.    THE  PRAIRIE  FALCON'S  WiFE.2 

The  prairie  falcon  lived  there.  His  wife,  the  duck,  lived  there. 
Coyote  lived  there  with  them.  The  three  were  there.  Then  the 
prairie  falcon  went  off.  He  told  Coyote:  "Do  not  sleep."  Then 
the  prairie  falcon 's  wife  went  off  from  there.  She  gathered  seeds. 
Then  they  [the  woman  and  Coyote]  returned.  The  prairie  falcon 
also  returned.  They  all  returned  safely.  Then  in  the  morning 

1  From  a  Yaudanchi  text.    Present  series,  II,  263. 
1  From  a  Yaudanchi  text.     Present  series,  II,  259. 


222  University  of  California  Publications.    [AM.AKCH.ETH. 

the  prairie  falcon  again  went.  He  told  Coyote:  "Do  not  sleep." 
Then  the  prairie  falcon's  wife  again  went.  Now  Coyote  slept 
while  she  gathered  seeds.  Then  the  condor  saw  her  from  above. 
Then  he  came  from  there.  He  lit  near  the  prairie  falcon's  wife. 
He  said  to  her : ' '  We  will  go  up. ' '  The  woman  said  to  him :  "  I  will 
not  go. ' '  He  said  to  her :  ' '  We  will  go. ' '  Then  she  agreed.  She 
said  to  him:  "How  shall  I  go?"  He  said  to  her:  "Lie  down 
right  here  on  my  back."  Then  they  two  went  off.  They  went 
up.  Then  they  arrived  there,  far  off,  at  the  hole  of  our  world. 
An  old  man  was  there.  Now  the  two  lived  there.  The  woman 
was  with  him.  The  old  man  there  guarded  the  woman.  Then 
the  prairie  falcon  came  home.  He  said:  "Where  is  my  wife?" 
Then  he  [Coyote]  said:  "I  do  not  know."  He  said  to  him: 
' '  What  did  you  do  ?  Did  you  sleep  ? "  He  said :  ' '  Yes,  I  slept. ' ' 
Now  they  two  looked  for  her.  They  did  not  find  her.  Then  they 
sent  the  dove  to  look.  The  dove  did  not  find  her.  Then  they 
sent  the  buzzard  also.  The  buzzard  did  not  find  her.  They  sent 
also  the  large  fly,  and  he  did  not  find  her.  Then  they  sent  the 
large  lizard,  k'ondjedja  (species?).  Then  the  lizard  came  out 
from  the  rock.  He  looked  about.  He  saw  the  hole  of  our  world 
above.  Then  the  lizard  said:  "Far  up."  Then  they  sent  the 
large  fly  again.  He  went  up.  He  came  there  above  to  the  hole 
of  our  world.  Then  the  fly  saw  that  woman.  From  there  he  went 
back.  He  came  to  the  prairie  falcon.  He  told  the  prairie  falcon : 
"Your  wife  is  above  there."  Now  the  condor  went.  He  said 
to  the  old  man:  "Do  not  say  this  to  my  wife;  do  not  tell  her: 
'  Bring  water ! '  Well,  now  I  am  going. ' '  Then  the  condor  went. 
Now  the  prairie  falcon  arrived  there  where  the  water  was.  Then 
the  prairie  falcon  saw  his  wife  there.  He  told  his  wife :  "  Do  not 
say  anything."  Then  he  went  from  there.  He  arrived  there. 
Then  the  old  man  said  to  him:  "Where  are  you  going?"  Then 
he  said :  "  I  am  traveling  for  nothing. ' '  Then  he  said :  "  I  am  go- 
ing now."  He  told  his  wife:  "Come  to  me  there  where  the 
water  is. ' '  Then  his  wife  said :  ' '  Yes. ' '  Then  the  prairie  falcon 
had  gone.  That  old  man  slept.  Then  the  prairie  falcon's  wife 
went.  Then  the  prairie  falcon's  wife  came  to  him  at  the  water. 
Then  they  went.  Now  they  two  arrived  at  their  house. 


VOL. 4]       Kroeber— Myths  of  South  Central  California.  223 

31. — YAUDANCHI  YOKUTS.    THE  PRAIRIE  FALCON  LOSES.1 

The  prairie  falcon  shouted  because  he  beat  all  the  people  at 
playing.  Then  the  dove  and  the  meadow-lark  told  Coyote:  "Go 
and  cuckold  him."  Coyote  said:  "Yes,  I  will  do  it."  He  went 
up  the  mountain.  Halfway  up  was  a  spring.  From  there  Coyote 
went  to  the  summit.  He  rolled  himself  down.  At  each  bound 
he  cried:  "I  am  the  prairie  falcon,  I  am  the  prairie  falcon!" 
When  he  had  rolled  to  the  spring  he  looked  at  himself  in  the 
water.  He  resembled  the  prairie  falcon  a  little.  He  went  to  the 
top  of  the  mountain  again  and  rolled  down  once  more,  crying: 
"I  am  the  prairie  falcon."  Then  he  looked  at  himself  in  the 
spring  and  thought:  "I  am  a  little  more  like  him."  Again  he 
went  to  the  top  and  rolled  down.  Then  he  looked  at  himself  in 
the  water.  Now  he  was  the  prairie  falcon.  Then  he  said :  ' '  Let 
me  have  a  stick. ' '  Then  he  had  his  stick  and  went  to  the  prairie 
falcon's  house.  He  leaned  the  stick  against  the  entrance  and 
said  to  the  woman : ' '  Give  me  my  ball. ' '  She  asked  him :  ' '  Where 
is  it  ? "  "  It  is  there  at  our  pillow, ' '  he  said.  She  could  not  find 
it.  So  she  said:  "Come,  get  it  yourself."  Coyote  entered  the 
house,  lifted  up  the  pillow,  and  there  was  the  ball.  The  prairie 
falcon's  wife  asked:  "Why  did  you  not  take  it  when  you  went?" 
Then  he  hugged  her.  And  then  he  cohabited  with  her.  When 
he  went  out  of  the  house,  the  woman  saw  his  tail  sticking  out. 
He  went  where  they  were  playing.  Now  the  dove  won  and  the 
meadow-lark  won,  and  the  prairie  falcon  lost.  He  lost  all  his 
beads. 

32. — YAUDANCHI  YOKUTS.    WAR  OF  THE  FOOTHILL  AND  PLAINS 

PEOPLE. 

The  birds  and  animals  from  the  mountains  (foothills)  went 
to  war  with  the  animals  of  the  lake  below.  With  the  party  from 
the  mountains  was  Coyote.  He  had  a  large  quiver  full  of  arrows. 
In  the  morning  he  got  up,  knotted  his  hair  behind,  took  his  bow, 
and  called  to  all,  ' '  Get  up,  get  up,  or  I  will  kill  you.  I  am  ready 
to  go  to  war."  Now  they  started.  All  the  way  down  into  the 
plains  Coyote  led  the  way  and  hurried  the  others.  Alongside  him 
1  From  a  Yaudanchi  text.  Present  series,  II,  264. 


224  University  of  California  Publications.   [AM.ARCH.ETH. 

was  the  humming-bird.  They  two  were  the  leaders.  There  were 
three  owls  ( ?  tuwidech)  with  the  party.  One  of  these  carried 
an  inexhaustible  supply  of  arrow  points  in  his  mouth;  another 
carried  sinew;  and  a  third  feathers  for  arrow-shafts.  As  the 
arrows  became  used  during  the  fight,  they  produced  these  mater- 
ials and  kept  the  people  supplied.  So  they  fought.  The  people 
from  the  mountains  beat  those  of  the  plains.  But  there  were 
two  that  they  could  not  kill,  the  fish  epis  and  the  turtle.  One 
of  these  was  slippery,  the  other  was  hard,  and  the  arrows  glanced 
off  their  backs.  Then  Coyote  broke  his  leg,  took  out  the  bone, 
stuck  it  into  the  end  of  his  arrow,  and  shot.  He  struck  the  fish 
in  the  back  of  its  neck  and  killed  it.  Then  he  shot  at  the  turtle 
and  struck  it  in  its  head  aperture  and  killed  it. 

Now  the  eagle,  who  was  the  chief  of  all,  sent  off  the  victorious 
mountain  people/  He  said:  "You  cannot  live  here  any  longer. 
You  must  go  away.  "Where  do  you  want  to  go  ?  "  Coyote  said : 
' '  Wishawishawisha !  Wishawishawisha !  Wishawishawisha !  I 
do  not  want  to  go."  The  humming-bird  agreed  with  him.  The 
eagle  said:  "Well,  what  are  you  going  to  become?  What  will  you 
be?  I  am  going  to  fly  high  up  in  the  air  and  live  on  squirrels 
and  sometimes  on  deer. ' '  The  dog  said :  "  I  will  stay  with  people 
and  be  their  friend.  I  will  follow  them,  and  perhaps  I  will  get 
something  to  eat  in  that  way. ' '  The  buzzard  said :  ' '  When  some- 
thing dies  I  will  smell  it.  I  will  go  there  and  eat  it. ' '  The  crow 
said:  "When  I  see  something  lying  dead  I  will  pick  its  eyes." 
Coyote  said :  "  I  will  go  about  killing  grasshoppers.  That  is  how 
I  will  live. ' '  The  humming-bird  said :  "  I  will  go  to  the  flowers 
and  get  my  food  from  them. ' '  The  condor  said :  "  I  will  not  stay 
here.  I  will  go  far  off  into  the  mountains.  Perhaps  I  will  find 
something  there."  The  woodpecker  said :  "I  will  get  acorns  and 
make  holes  in  the  trees."  The  blue  jay  said:  "I  am  going  to 
make  trees  grow  over  the  hills.  I  will  work."  The  rat  said: 
"I  will  go  where  there  are  old  trees  and  make  my  house  in 
them. ' '  The  mouse  said :  "  I  will  run  here  and  there  and  every- 
where. I  shall  have  holes  and  perhaps  I  can  live  in  that  way. ' ' 
The  trout  said :  "  I  will  live  in  the  water  and  perhaps  I  can  find 
something  to  eat  there." 

That  was  the  time  they  stopped  being  like  us  and  scattered. 


VOL.  4]       Kroeber. — Myths  of  South  Central  California.  225 

33. — YAUDANCHI  YOKUTS.    THUNDER  AND  WHIRLWIND. 

Thunder  and  Whirlwind  each  had  a  boy.  Thunder  said: 
' '  You  cannot  find  your  boy.  I  have  hidden  him  from  you. ' '  He 
had  put  him  away  enclosed  in  stone.  Then  the  Whirlwind  rushed. 
He  whirled  by  the  rock,  tore  the  top  off,  and  found  his  boy. 
Then  the  Whirdwind  took  Thunder's  boy  and  whirled  off  with 
him.  He  took  him  far  away  into  the  water.  Thunder  began 
to  look  for  his  son.  It  became  foggy.  There  was  fine  rain  all 
around.  Thunder  came  with  great  noise.  He  hurled  the  rain 
and  fog  aside.  He  found  his  son.  So  each  of  them  succeeded  in 
getting  his  boy  again. 

34. — YAUDANCHI  YOKUTS.    MiKiTi.1 

Learned  by  the  informant  from  a  Yauelmani  Yokuts. 

Mitiki  lived  with  her  daughter  at  Chit 'at  (clover).  They 
were  there  alone,  she  and  her  daughter.  It  was  spring  and  the 
clover  grew.  Then  her  daughter  went  out  to  gather  clover. 
Mikiti  told  her:  "Do  not  go  far."  Then  for  a  long  time  she 
did  not  go  far.  After  awhile  she  began  to  go  farther.  Then  she 
saw  good  clover  and  gathered  it  and  brought  it  home.  Then 
Mikiti  ate  it.  "Where  did  you  get  the  good  clover?"  she  asked. 
Her  daughter  said :  "  I  went  farther  away. ' '  Then  Mikiti  said  : 
"Do  not  go  there  again."  The  next  day  the  girl  went  again. 
She  came  where  it  was  brushy.  "Do  not  taste  the  clover  when 
you  gather  it,"  Mikiti  had  told  her.  Now  when  she  was  in  the 
brushy  place  she  found  good  clover.  She  gathered  a  great  deal. 
She  put  it  all  into  her  carrying  net.  When  she  had  done  this  she 
saw  a  bunch  of  clover.  She  thought :  "  It  looks  very  fine. ' '  Then 
she  ate  it.  She  had  not  yet  swallowed  it  when  a  grizzly  bear 
came  out  of  the  brush.  He  ate  her  up  entirely.  Now  this  girl 
had  been  with  child.  When  she  did  not  come  back  to  the  house 
Mikiti  said:  "I  knew  it.  You  have  been  eaten  up."  Next  day 
she  tracked  her.  Then  she  saw  where  she  had  gathered  the  clover. 
She  looked  all  about  there.  She  could  not  even  find  blood.  Then 
she  whistled.  She  heard  nothing.  Again  she  whistled.  Again 
she  did  not  hear  anything.  She  went  on  and  whistled  again. 

1  From  a  Yaudanchi  text.    Present  series,  II,  266. 


226  University  of  California  Publications.   [AM.ARCH.ETH. 

Then  from  a  distance  she  heard  a  faint  answer.  "Ah,  that  is 
where  my  grandchild  is,"  she  said.  Then  she  went  there.  She 
looked  all  over  the  clover.  She  could  not  find  anything.  She 
whistled  again.  It  answered  right  by  her.  Then  she  saw  blood 
there  on  the  clover  leaves.  She  took  the  bloody  leaves  and  brought 
them  home.  Putting  the  blood  in  a  basket,  she  took  it  to  the 
spring  and  left  it  there,  covering  it  with  another  basket.  Then 
she  went  back  to  the  house.  Next  day  she  went  to  look  at  it. 
She  listened.  Then  she  heard  a  tapping  noise.  ' '  Oh,  my  grand- 
child is  already  growing, ' '  she  said.  Then  she  took  off  the  cover- 
ing basket.  She  took  him  to  the  house.  He  was  already  a  person 
when  she  brought  him  into  the  house.  Then  she  lived  there 
with  the  child.  Once  the  boy  went  out  doors.  He  came  back, 
crying:  "My  grandmother,  I  saw  something!  I  want  to  shoot 
it."  Then  she  made  arrows  for  her  grandson.  When  she  had 
finished  them  he  went  out.  He  saw  a  bird  and  shot  it.  He  killed 
it.  Then  he  came  back  and  gave  her  the  bird.  She  said :  ' '  That 
is  very  good,  my  grandson. ' '  Again  he  went  out  and  came  back, 
saying:  "My  grandmother,  I  saw  something.  It  has  something 
on  the  top  of  its  head."  "It  is  a  quail,"  she  told  him.  Then 
the  boy  went  and  shot  it.  He  came  back  and  gave  it  to  her. 
Then  he  said:  "My  bow  is  not  good.  Make  me  another  one,  a 
better  one."  Then  Mikiti  made  him  a  good  bow.  She  pulled 
out  her  pubic  hair  to  make  the  bowstring.  He  went  off  again. 
He  came  back  and  said:  "I  saw  something,  grandmother." 
' '  What  is  it ! "  she  asked.  ' '  This  one  has  a  longer  crest. "  "  That 
is  a  mountain  quail.  Go  kill  it. ' '  So  the  boy  went  off  again.  He 
came  to  the  mountain  quail  and  shot  and  killed  it.  Then  he 
brought  it  back  and  gave  it  to  his  grandmother.  He  was  still 
growing.  Now  he  did  not  like  his  bow  any  longer.  Once  he  said : 
"Is  none  of  the  property  of  my  relatives  left?"  Then  Mikiti 
told  him:  "Yes,  there  is  some."  "I  would  like  to  see  it,"  he 
said.  So  she  opened  the  house  in  which  they  had  lived.  Now 
there  were  all  kinds  of  good  fighting  bows  and  fighting  arrows 
and  blankets  and  other  things  here.  Then  the  boy  went  inside, 
and  his  grandmother  told  him:  "Pick  out  what  you  want  and 
take  it. ' '  He  said :  ' '  Yes,  I  will  take  this  bow  and  these  arrows. ' ' 
Now  he  tried  all  his  arrows.  Then  his  grandmother  told  him: 


VOL.  4]      Kroeber.— Myths  of  Soulk  Central  California.  227 

' '  Do  not  go  east  from  here ;  you  will  be  killed  if  you  do. ' '  Then 
he  went  off  again.  He  went  far  east.  There  he  climbed  on  a 
rock.  Then  he  went  back  to  the  house.  He  told  his  grandmother : 
"I  went  far  east."  She  said:  "Do  not  go  there  again.  The 
grizzly  bear  will  kill  you."  He  said:  "Oh,  he  cannot  do  any- 
thing. I  will  kill  the  old  fellow  with  the  big  feet."  Then  he 
went  off  there  once  more.  He  shouted.  At  once  a  grizzly  bear 
came  out.  He  came  close  to  the  boy.  Then  the  boy  told  him: 
' '  Go  back !  Run  off !  I  do  not  want  you. ' '  Again  he  shouted. 
Then  at  once  another  grizzly  bear  came.  He  also  rushed  up  to 
the  boy.  Then  the  boy  told  him  also : ' '  Go  back !  Run !  I  do  not 
want  you, ' '  and  the  bear  returned.  Then  he  immediately  shouted 
again.  ' '  Ah,  you  are  the  one  I  want, ' '  he  said,  as  another  grizzly 
came  out.  The  bear  said:  "It  is  good,"  and  at  once  jumped  at 
him.  The  boy  dodged  him.  Again  the  bear  jumped.  Then  the 
boy  jumped  on  the  high  rock.  From  there  he  shot  the  bear  as 
he  looked  up.  He  shot  him  in  the  throat.  Thus  he  killed  him 
who  had  killed  his  mother.  He  skinned  him.  Then  he  went 
back.  There  was  a  rock  at  the  place  where  Mikiti  used  to  get 
water.  He  covered  this  rock  with  the  bear  skin.  Then  he  went 
to  the  house.  "Grandmother,  go  get  water,"  he  said.  "Very- 
well,  my  grandson, ' '  she  said.  Then  she  went  to  get  water.  She 
came  there.  She  saw  the  bear  skin.  Then  she  ran  back.  As 
she  ran  along  the  path  she  urinated  into  her  basket,  dozhozhozhoz- 
hozhozh.  Then  she  gave  him  what  she  had  in  her  basket.  The 
boy  did  not  like  it.  He  said:  "This  is  not  good  water.  Throw 
it  away.  Go  get  some  good  water. ' '  Then  she  went  again.  Again 
she  saw  the  bear  skin  at  the  water  and  ran  off  without  having 
brought  water.  As  she  went  she  urinated,  and  again  brought  her 
urine  to  the  boy.  He  said :  ' '  You  have  not  yet  got  good  water. ' ' 
Then  he  told  her:  "Grandmother,  why  are  you  afraid  where 
our  water  is?  That  is  the  skin  of  the  bear  that  killed  my 
mother. ' ' 

The  old  woman,  the  girl,  and  the  boy  were  all  Mikiti.  Every 
night  they  still  cook  acorns  at  this  spring.  In  the  morning  the 
rocks  are  warm.  But  they  cannot  be  seen  and  leave  no  tracks. 
They  lived  in  the  Paleuyami  country  and  talked  Paleuyami 
dialect. 


228  University  of  California  Publications.   [AM.ARCH.ETH. 

35. — YAUDANCHI  YOKUTS.    THE  VISIT  TO  THE  DEAD.1 

A  woman  died.  Her  husband  went  to  where  she  was  buried. 
At  night  he  slept  there.  The  next  night  he  went  and  slept  there. 
The  next  night  he  slept  there  again.  Then  in  the  middle  of  the 
night  his  wife  came  out  of  the  grave.  She  stood  up  and  brushed 
the  earth  from  herself.  She  faced  north,  not  looking  at  him, 
and  brushed  herself  entirely  clean.  She  brushed  her  hair  clean. 
Then  she  went  north  (khushim,  actually  somewhat  west  of  north, 
in  a  direction  at  right  angles  to  the  prevailing  course  of  the 
streams).  Her  husband  followed  her.  They  went  on  during 
the  night.  Then  the  dead  woman  turned  into  a  log.  At  night 
she  arose  and  brushed  herself.  Then  they  went  on  again.  Then 
she  turned  to  a  log  again.  Again  she  got  up  and  brushed  herself 
and  again  they  went  on.  Then  they  came  to  the  bridge  of  the 
world  of  the  dead  (chedangdu  wa  tibiknicha).  There  the  woman 
crossed.  Her  husband  was  unable  to.  On  the  other  side  were 
watchmen.  They  saw  the  man  across  the  water.  Then  the  watch- 
men were  told  to  make  a  bridge  for  him.  Then  he  crossed.  The 
watchmen  smelled  of  him.  They  told  him:  "Sit  there."  Then 
he  sat  in  that  place.  The  watchmen  knew  how  he  felt.  They 
said :  ' '  Perhaps  he  is  hungry.  Give  him  something  to  eat. ' '  Then 
they  gave  him  one  pinenut.  He  ate  the  pinenut.  Then  there 
were  more  in  his  hand.  He  ate  these  and  again  there  were  more. 
At  last  he  was  satisfied.  At  night  the  people  there  danced.  Next 
day  they  again  danced  at  night.  Then  the  watchmen  told  him : 
' '  Take  away  the  woman. ' '  They  said  to  her :  "  It  will  be  well  if 
you  too  go  back."  Then  they  started.  But  they  told  him:  "Do 
not  sleep."  Now  they  went.  They  spent  a  night  on  the  way. 
They  went  on  again.  Again  they  spent  the  night.  They  went 
another  day.  Then  at  night  he  slept.  Then  he  was  lying  with 
a  log. 

36. — YAUDANCHI  YOKUTS.     THE  MAN  AND  THE  OWLS.    A  TALE. 

A  Waksachi  (a  Shoshonean  tribe  on  the  Kaweah  drainage) 
man  and  his  wife  were  traveling.  They  camped  over  night  in 
a  cave.  They  had  a  fire  burning.  Then  they  heard  a  horned  owl 

1  From  a  Yaudanchi  text.    Present  series,  II,  272. 


VOL. 4]      Kroeber— Myths  of  Sauth  Central  California.  229 

(hutulu)  hoot.  The  woman  said  to  her  husband:  "Call  in  the 
same  way.  He  will  come  and  you  can  shoot  him  and  we  will 
eat  him  for  supper."  The  man  got  his  bow  and  arrows  ready 
and  called.  The  owl  answered.  He  called  again  and  again  and 
the  owl  answered,  coming  nearer.  At  last  it  sat  on  a  tree  near 
the  fire.  The  man  shot.  He  killed  it.  Then  his  wife  told  him : 
"Do  it  again.  Another  one  will  come."  Again  he  called  and 
brought  an  owl  and  shot  it.  He  said :  "It  is  enough  now. ' '  But 
his  wife  said:  "No.  Call  again.  If  you  call  them  in  the  morn- 
ing they  will  not  come.  We  have  had  no  meat  for  a  long  time. 
We  shall  want  something  to  eat  to-morrow  as  well  as  now. ' '  Then 
the  man  called.  More  owls  came.  There  were  more  and  more  of 
them.  He  shot,  but  more  came.  It  was  full  of  them  all  about. 
All  his  arrows  were  gone.  The  owls  came  closer  and  attacked 
them.  The  man  took  sticks  from  the  fire  and  fought  them  off. 
He  covered  the  woman  with  a  basket  and  kept  on  fighting. 
More  and  more  owls  came.  At  last  they  killed  both  the  man 
and  the  woman. 

37. — YAUELMANI  YOKUTS.    THE  BEGINNING  OF  THE  WORLD. 

At  first  there  was  water  everywhere.  A  piece  of  wood 
(wichet,  stick,  wood,  tree)  grew  up  out  of  the  water  to  the  sky. 
On  the  tree  there  was  a  nest.  Those  who  were  inside  did  not 
see  any  earth.  There  was  only  water  to  be  seen.  The  eagle  was 
the  chief  of  them.  With  him  were  the  wolf,  Coyote,  the  panther, 
the  prairie  falcon,  the  hawk  called  po'yon,  and  the  condor.  The 
eagle  wanted  to  make  the  earth.  He  thought :  ' '  We  will  have  to 
have  land."  Then  he  called  k'uik'ui,  a  small  duck.  He  said  to  it: 
"Dive  down  and  bring  up  earth."  The  duck  dived,  but  did  not 
reach  the  bottom.  It  died.  The  eagle  called  another  kind  of 
duck.  He  told  it  to  dive.  This  duck  went  far  down.  It  finally 
reached  the  bottom.  Just  as  it  touched  the  mud  there  it  died. 
Then  it  came  up  again.  Then  the  eagle  and  the  other  six  saw 
a  little  dirt  under  its  finger  nail.  When  the  eagle  saw  this  he 
took  the  dirt  from  its  nail.  He  mixed  it  with  telis  and  pele  seeds 
and  ground  them  up.  He  put  water  with  the  mixture  and  made 
dough.  This  was  in  the  morning.  Then  he  set  it  in  the  water 


230  University  of  California  Publications.   [AM.AECH.ETH. 

and  it  swelled  and  spread  everywhere,  going  out  from  the  middle. 
(These  seeds  when  ground  and  mixed  with  water  swell.)  In  the 
evening  the  eagle  told  his  companions :  ' '  Take  some  earth. ' '  They 
went  down  and  took  a  little  earth  up  in  the  tree  with  them. 
Early  in  the  morning,  when  the  morning  star  came,  the  eagle 
said  to  the  wolf :  ' '  Shout. ' '  The  wolf  shouted  and  the  earth  dis- 
appeared, and  all  was  water  again.  The  eagle  said:  "We  will 
make  it  again,"  for  it  was  for  this  purpose  that  they  had  taken 
some  earth  with  them  into  the  nest.  Then  they  took  telis  and 
pele  seeds  again,  and  ground  them  with  the  earth,  and  put  the 
mixture  into  the  water,  and  it  swelled  out  again.  Then  early 
next  morning,  when  the  morning  star  appeared,  the  eagle  told 
the  wolf  again : ' '  Shout ! ' '  and  he  shouted  three  times.  The  earth 
was  shaken  by  an  earthquake,  but  it  stood.  Then  Coyote  said: 
"I  must  shout  too."  He  shouted  and  the  earth  shook  a  very 
little.  Now  it  was  good.  Then  they  came  out  of  the  tree  on 
the  ground.  Close  to  where  this  tree  stood  there  was  a  lake. 
The  eagle  said:  "We  will  live  here."  Then  they  had  a  house 
there  and  lived  there. 

Now  every  evening  when  the  sun  went  down  tokho  (sokhon, 
tobacco)  came  there  and  went  into  the  water  in  the  lake.  Coyote 
wanted  to  catch  it.  The  eagle  asked  him :  ' '  How  will  you  do  it  ? " 
Coyote  said :  ; '  Well,  I  will  do  it. ' '  He  went  off  into  the  brush, 
rolled  string  on  his  thigh,  and  made  it  into  a  snare,  which  he 
put  into  the  water.  Tokho  came,  entered  the  water,  and  was 
caught.  Coyote  tried  to  take  hold  of  it,  but  it  was  too  hot.  He 
could  not  touch  it.  It  was  like  fire.  Only  after  the  sun  came 
up  was  he  able  to  take  hold  of  it.  Now,  after  he  had  held  it  all 
night,  the  tokho  said  to  him:  "Take  me  to  the  house."  Coyote 
asked  it:  "What  does  tokho  mean?"  It  said:  "I  am  tobacco 
(sokhon).  Give  me  to  the  prairie  falcon. "  Coyote  brought  it  to 
the  house  and  said :  ' '  Who  wants  this  ? ' '  The  eagle  did  not  want 
it.  None  of  the  seven  wanted  it  except  the  prairie  falcon.  He 
said :  "  I  will  take  it. ' '  Coyote  asked  it :  "  What  are  you  good  f  or  ? " 
The  tobacco  said :  "  I  am  good  for  many  things.  If  there  is  any- 
thing you  want  to  have,  use  me,  and  then  whatever  it  is  that 
you  wish  will  be  so. ' '  The  prairie  falcon  said :  "  I  will  try  it. ' ' 
At  night  he  took  a  little  of  the  tobacco  in  his  mouth  and  blew 


VOL.  4]       Kroeber. — Myths  of  South  Central  California.  231 

out :  "Pu !    I  want  it  to  rain. "    Then  it  began  to  rain.    It  rained 
all  night. 

Then  Coyote  said :  ' '  We  will  make  a  woman  of  a  deer. ' '  Then 
they  killed  a  deer.  They  put  it  under  a  blanket  of  tules.  It 
was  entirely  covered.  When  the  morning  star  came  it  got  up. 
It  was  a  person  (yokots)  now.  It  was  a  woman.  Coyote  said: 
"I  will  sleep  with  her."  That  night  he  slept  with  her.  In  the 
morning  he  was  dead.  The  woman  was  not  hurt.  The  prairie 
falcon  took  a  sharp  water-grass  (kapi).  He  said:  "Stick  it  in 
his  anus  and  he  will  get  up."  One  of  them  put  it  in.  Coyote 
got  up  hurriedly.  ' '  Ah,  I  was  sleepy, ' '  he  said.  He  said :  ' ;  That 
is  not  good.  It  is  not  sweet.  All  men  will  die.  We  shall  have 
to  do  it  differently."  Then  he  killed  her.  He  left  her  under 
the  blanket  over  night.  Then  he  said:  "To-night  I  will  try  it 
again."  Then  he  slept  with  her.  In  the  morning  he  got  up 
early.  ' '  This  is  all  right, ' '  he  said.  ' '  This  is  good.  We  will  let 
it  be  like  that. ' '  This  is  how  people  came  to  be :  deer  was  the 
mother.  They  made  her  by  means  of  tobacco,  blowing  (spitting) 
it  out  while  they  said  what  they  wished.  But  the  prairie  falcon 
ate  nothing  but  tobacco.  He  lived  on  that.  Thus  the  earth  was 
made. 

38. — YAUELMANI  YOKUTS.    THE  ORIGIN  OF  DEATH. 

It  was  Coyote  who  brought  it  about  that  people  die.  He 
made  it  thus  because  our  hands  are  not  closed  like  his.  He  wanted 
our  hands  to  be  like  his,  but  kondjodji  (a  lizard),  said  to  him: 
' '  No,  they  must  have  my  hand. ' '  He  had  five  fingers  and  Coyote 
had  only  a  fist.  So  now  we  have  an  open  hand  with  five  fingers. 
But  then  Coyote  said :  "Well,  then  they  will  have  to  die. " 

39. — YAUELMANI  YOKUTS.    COYOTE'S  ADVENTURES  AND  THE 
PRAIRIE  FALCON'S  BLINDNESS. 

They  were  living  at  Kamupau  (south  of  San  Emidio,  which  is 
at  the  end  of  the  San  Joaquin  valley).  Coyote's  son  was  the 
hummingbird.  He  gambled  constantly  and  won  from  every- 
body. Then  the  eagle,  the  chief,  said :  ' '  Coyote 's  son  is  bad.  We 
will  kill  him."  They  went  to  the  owl,  huhuwet,  to  have  him  make 


232  University  of  California  Publications.   [AM.ARCH.ETH. 

a  fire  which  would  burn  up  the  hummingbird.  They  made  the 
jackrabbit  take  this  fire  inside  himself.  Next  day  the  crow  went 
to  Coyote  and  said  to  him:  "Let  us  hunt."  When  they  were 
hunting,  he  said  to  Coyote's  son:  "Shoot  that  jackrabbit  there!" 
When  the  boy  was  about  to  shoot,  his  father  told  him :  "  Do  not 
miss  the  little  white  mark  on  his  forehead."  The  boy  shot  and 
caused  a  great  fire  to  start.  Coyote  called  to  his  son :  ' '  Come, ' ' 
and  they  ran.  The  fire  followed  them  rapidly,  trying  to  over- 
take them.  They  went  up  on  a  bare  white  mountain  in  the 
northeast.  After  three  days  the  fire  stopped  burning.  It  had 
burned  the  mountains.  Then  Coyote  said :  "  I  will  go  back  to 
see  about  our  property.  You  must  stay  here  until  I  come  back. ' ' 
Then  Coyote  went  back  to  Kamupau.  He  arrived  there  at  night. 
The  crow  looked  and  saw  a  fire  in  Coyote's  house.  Then  he  told 
the  eagle :  ' '  Coyote  is  alive  still.  We  did  not  kill  him. ' '  In  the 
morning  they  went  to  him.  "Where  have  you  been?"  they  said. 
Coyote  said:  "I  was  lost."  The  eagle  told  him:  "It  is  well. 
Everything  is  as  it  used  to  be."  "Very  well,"  said  Coyote. 
Now  one  day  Coyote  began  to  carry  wood  and  lay  it  outside  his 
house.  For  three  days  he  worked  bringing  wood.  Then  the  peo- 
ple began  to  say :  ' '  What  is  Coyote  doing  ?  He  has  been  bringing 
wood  for  three  days.  What  is  it  for  1  He  must  be  crazy. ' '  Then 
Coyote  went  off.  He  traveled  one  night.  He  came  to  the  moon. 
The  moon  said  to  him :  ' '  What  do  you  want,  my  elder  brother  ? ' ' 
Coyote  said :  "  I  have  come  to  see  you. ' '  What  for  ? ' '  asked  the 
moon.  Coyote  said :  "  I  will  tell  you  what  I  want.  I  do  not  want 
you  to  rise  any  more.  Stay  at  home. ' '  The  moon  said :  ' '  Very 
well.  But  you  had  better  go  to  see  my  brother. ' '  Then  Coyote 
went  to  see  his  brother,  the  thunder.  ' '  What  do  you  want  ? "  he 
asked.  Coyote  said:  "I  will  tell  you."  "Well,  tell  me,"  said 
the  thunder.  Coyote  said:  "My  brother,  I  do  not  want  you  to 
appear.  Stay  back  where  I  want  you  to."  "Well,  yes,"  said 
the  thunder;  "but  you  had  better  go  to  our  other  brother.  See 
what  he  says.  He  will  do  what  is  right."  Then  Coyote  went 
to  see  the  sun.  He  went  into  the  house.  The  sun  did  not  want 
to  see  him.  He  turned  away  from  him.  Coyote  spoke  to  him 
but  he  turned  away  as  if  he  were  angry.  Three  times  Coyote 
spoke.  Then  the  sun  turned  and  said:  "What  do  you  want?" 


VOL.  4]       Kroeber.—Mytte  of  South  Central  California.  233 

Coyote  said :  "  I  want  you  to  stay  here  and  not  to  travel. "  "  Very 
well,"  said  the  sun;  "is  that  all  you  want?"  "Yes,"  said 
Coyote.  "Very  well,"  said  the  sun,  "go  to  see  our  brother  the 
night.  He  will  tell  you  what  he  will  do. ' '  Then  Coyote  went  to 
where  the  night  was,  far  off  in  the  last  land.  When  Coyote  came 
there  it  was  dark  and  he  could  not  see.  "Where  are  you."  he 
said.  No  one  answered.  ' '  Where  are  you  ? "  he  said.  Still  there 
was  no  answer.  ' '  Where  are  you  ? "  he  asked.  Then  it  began  to 
be  light.  "What  do  you  want?"  he  was  asked.  "I  want  you 
not  to  come  about  but  to  stay  here, ' '  said  Coyote.  ' '  Very  well ; 
is  that  all?"  asked  the  night.  "Yes."  Then  the  night  asked 
him :  ' '  When  do  you  want  me  to  do  this  ? ' '  Coyote  said :  "  I  will 
shout  three  times.  You  will  hear  it."  "Well,  shout  loudly," 
said  the  night,  and  Coyote  agreed.  Then  he  went  back  to  Kamu- 
pau.  He  arrived  at  night.  In  the  morning  he  got  up  early, 
shouted,  shouted  again,  and  shouted  again  three  times.  It  re- 
mained night,  foggy  and  drizzling,  and  the  sun  did  not  rise.1 
People  sat  up,  became  tired,  lay  down  again,  and  slept.  Coyote 
lived  well.  He  had  much  food  and  plenty  of  wood.  So  it  was 
for  a  month.  Then  the  people  said :  ' '  What  is  it  ?  Where  is  the 
sun?"  "I  do  not  know,"  they  told  each  other.  "Go  to  see 
Coyote,"  the  eagle  said.  "Perhaps  he  has  done  it.  Bring  him 
these  beads. ' '  Then  the  crow  went.  He  told  Coyote :  ' '  The  chief 
sends  you  these.  He  wants  you  to  take  them.  What  have  you 
done?"  Coyote  said:  "I  do  not  know.  I  cannot  do  anything." 
The  crow  went  back.  "What  did  he  say?"  the  eagle  asked  him. 
"He  said  he  could  do  nothing."  Now  none  of  the  people  had 
any  wood.  All  around  the  houses  there  was  water.  It  had  rained 
for  three  months  and  was  dark  constantly  and  there  was  no  sun 
nor  moon.  Then  the  crow  came  again  to  Coyote.  "What  is  the 
matter  ? "  he  said.  ' '  There  is  no  sun  nor  moon,  there  is  nothing. 
The  chief  wants  you  to  make  it  better. ' '  Coyote  said :  "I  do  not 
know  how.  Perhaps  it  is  that  they  just  have  not  come  of  them- 
selves." The  crow  went  back  and  said:  "He  says  he  does  not 


1  There  is  an  obvious  contradiction  in  causing  continuous  night  by  the 
absence  of  the  night  as  well  as  of  the  sun  and  moon.  Similarly  in  a  Yurok 
myth,  darkness,  which  at  first  was  lacking  in  the  world,  is  stolen  from  the 
twelve  sun-moon  brothers,  or,  in  another  version,  results  when  the  sun  first 
moves  across  the  sky  instead  of  standing  still. 


234  University  of  California  Publications.   [AM.ARCH.ETH. 

know.  He  will  not  help.  I  think  he  does  not  want  to.  He  does 
not  wish  them  to  come. ' '  Coyote  was  still  living  well,  with  plenty 
of  wood  and  plenty  of  food.  The  people  were  in  the  water.  The 
grass  was  high.  It  had  rained  four  months  now.  They  were 
without  food  or  fire.  Two  months  more  they  endured  it.  Then 
they  went  to  Coyote  again  with  a  great  quantity  of  beads  (lilna), 
three  sacks  full.  The  crow  gave  them  to  Coyote.  Coyote  .said: 
"What  do  you  want?  Food  or  wood?"  The  crow  said :"  The 
chief  wants  the  weather  changed.  What  is  wrong  with  this  world 
that  there  is  no  sun  and  no  moon ? ' '  Coyote  told  him :  "I  do  not 
know.  I  will  try."  Then  he  gave  six  sacks  of  beads  to  the 
eagle,  double  of  what  he  had  received.  So  he  outdid  the  eagle. 
He  said :  "  I  will  see  what  I  can  do. ' '  The  crow  took  the  six 
sacks  of  beads.  When  he  gave  them  to  the  eagle,  this  one  asked 
him:  "What  did  he  say?"  The  crow  told  him:  "He  said:  'I 
will  try.'  '  Then  Coyote  went  to  the  moon.  For  six  months  it 
had  been  night  now,  for  one-half  a  year.  The  moon  said :  ' '  Well, 
you  have  come."  Coyote  said:  "Yes,  I  want  you  to  travel  again 
now."  "Very  well,'  said  the  moon.  Then  Coyote  went  to  the 
thunder.  "You  have  come,"  he  said.  "Yes.  I  want  you  to 
appear  again."  Then  he  went  to  the  sun,  and  told  him  also. 
' '  Travel  again  now, ' '  and  the  sun  agreed.  Then  he  went  to  the 
night  and  told  him.  "Come  back  to  your  place  now."  "Very 
well ;  when  ? ' '  Coyote  said :  "  I  will  shout  three  times.  You  will 
hear  me."  Then  he  went  back.  He  shouted,  and  shouted,  and 
shouted  a  third  time.  Soon  it  cleared  and  became  light.  The 
sun  came,  and  people  saw  grass  and  clover,  and  ate.  They 
thought  much  of  Coyote  because  he  had  brought  this  about. 

Soon  Coyote  started  out  again.  He  said :  "I  am  going  to  see 
my  son.  I  shall  come  back  soon."  The  chief  told  him:  "Very 
well,  but  come  back  at  once  without  staying.  We  want  you 
here."  Coyote  agreed  and  started.  He  went  towards  the  white 
mountain  where  his  son  was.  He  went  up  Kern  river  past  Bakers- 
field  to  Gonoilkin,  a  waterfall.  There  he  sat  and  looked  at  the 
river.  He  saw  many  fish  and  wanted  to  eat  them.  Then  he  said : 
epash  epash  epash  wanil  wanil  wanil 

fish  fish  fish  come  come  come 

habak  tutsuat  tsenil 

approach-the-fire  a-plant  ? 


VOL.  4]      Kroeber. — Myths  of  South  Central  California,  235 

Soon  little  fish  came  to  him.  "You  are  no  epash  fish,"  he 
said  and  threw  them  back  into  the  river.  Then  he  called  again. 
Soon  fish  came  that  were  a  little  larger,  but  he  threw  them  back 
also,  saying:  "You  are  no  epash  fish."  He  called  again,  and  this 
time  they  came  as  big  as  his  forearm.  He  picked  them  up  and 
threw  them  back,  telling  them:  "You  are  no  epash  fish."  Then 
he  called  once  more  and  they  came  as  big  as  his  thigh.  Then 
he  said:  "Ya  epash,  ma  epash,  now  they  are  epash  fish,  you  are 
epash  fish."  He  kept  on  calling  and  more  came.  He  filled  a 
large  hole  in  the  rock  with  them.  Then  he  carried  them  to 
Wakhachau.  He  said:  "I  think  I  will  cook  them  here.  No,  I 
think  I  will  not.  I  will  go  down  below.  It  is  sandy  here  and 
not  a  good  place. ' '  He  went  down  the  river  to  Woilo,  at  Bakers- 
field.  He  did  not  like  it  there  and  went  on  again  down  the  river 
to  Kuyo.  He  did  not  like  it  there  and  went  to  Pokhalin  tinliu. 
He  did  not  like  it  there  either  and  went  on  to  Tashlibunau,  San 
Emidio.  Now  he  had  carried  them  a  long  way.  He  said :  ' '  There 
is  plenty  of  wood  here.  I  will  cook."  There  was  a  big  hole. 
In  this  he  made  his  fire.  Then  he  thought :  "If  I  put  them  en- 
tirely into  this  they  will  burn. "  So  he  put  their  heads  into  tne 
hole  and  covered  them  up,  leaving  only  the  tails  sticking  out, 
lying  one  next  to  the  other  all  around.  So  they  cooked.  He  sat 
there.  Then  he  said:  "I  have  bododiwat  (small  black  ill- 
smelling  beetles)  inside  of  me.  I  have  good  meat  in  my  belly. 
I  will  mix  my  food.  I  will  drink  and  make  it  salty."  Then  he 
went  to  a  clear,  bitter  creek.  Of  that  he  drank.  He  drank  too 
much  of  it.  He  went  back  to  where  his  fish  were  cooking.  Soon 
he  was  taken  with  colic.  He  defecated.  Then  he  saw  the  bododi- 
wat and  laughed.  He  said:  "There  is  my  good  mixed  meat." 
He  went  back  to  where  his  fish  were.  Soon  he  defecated  again. 
He  laughed  again  at  seeing  the  beetles.  ' '  There  is  that  good  meat. 
I  am  well  now.  I  have  put  it  outside  of  me.  It  will  not  be 
mixed  any  more."  Now  he  was  weak.  He  could  not  walk  or 
get  up.  He  had  defecated  too  much.  He  could  hardly  sit  up. 
He  began  to  roll,  and  rolled  like  a  log  into  the  river.  There  he 
stayed  until  he  became  well.  Then  he  got  up  and  went  where 
his  fish  were.  He  sat  down.  He  said:  "Well,  I  will  eat  now." 
He  dug  up  the  earth,  took  the  loose  tails,  and  threw  them  away, 


236  University  of  California  Publications.   [AM.ARCH.ETH. 

all  around,  here  and  there.  He  dug  and  dug,  but  there  was 
nothing  else  there.  He  said:  "What  is  the  matter?  Perhaps  I 
have  cooked  them  too  much  and  they  have  gone  down  into  the 
ground. ' '  He  dug  away  but  found  no  fish.  He  said  :  ' '  They 
must  have  cooked  so  much  that  they  went  down  further."  He 
dug  and  dug  until  he  was  tired.  He  tore  up  the  rocks  and  pulled 
them  out.  He  got  no  fish,  but  he  made  a  big  hole.  Soon  batlawu 
(a  red-headed  fish-eating  bird)  came  to  Coyote.  He  asked: 
' ' What  are  you  looking  for ? ' '  Coyote  said :  "I  am  looking  for 
my  fish.  Who  took  them  ? ' '  Batlawu  said :  ' '  I  will  tell  you  who 
took  them. ' '  Coyote  said :  "  I  will  give  you  half  if  you  tell  me. ' ' 
Batlawu  told  him:  "You  will  see  him  soon.  He  is  in  the  woods 
up  here."  It  was  sokhsukh  (a  fish-eating  bird)  who  had  stolen 
the  fish.  He  had  eaten  them  all.  Coyote  came  to  him.  He  said : 
"Give  me  half."  Sokhsukh  shook  his  head  and  vomited  half 
the  fish.  Coyote  ate  that.  Then  he  said:  "Now  I  will  call  you 
and  kill  you."  He  called:  "Sokhsukh!"  and  sokhsukh  fell. 
Coyote  tried  to  catch  him  but  he  escaped.  Again  he  tried  to 
seize  him  but  he  escaped.  Soon  he  flew  up  so  high  that  Coyote 
could  not  reach  him  any  longer.  He  still  followed  him,  looking 
up  at  him.  They  traveled  over  half  the  land  from  the  hills  down 
to  the  lake  (Tulare  lake).  Then  sokhsukh  disappeared.  Coyot< 
could  not  see  him  any  longer.  Then  he  stopped.  "It  is  too  far 
to  go  back  to  the  hills, ' '  he  said.  ' '  I  will  go  to  the  lake.  I  can 
eat  tules  and  mud.  It  will  be  good. ' '  Then  he  went  to  the  lake. 
He  was  hungry.  Then  he  ate  tule (-roots).  He  said:  "It  is  well. 
Now  I  will  go  to  see  what  I  can  find. ' '  He  went.  He  saw  many 
ducks.  He  said:  "I  will  kill  many  of  them.  Then  I  shall  be 
well  off. "  So  he  started  to  hunt  them.  The  ducks  were  calling : 
"e",  en,  en."  Coyote  listened,  still  thinking:  "I  will  kill  them 
and  eat  them. ' '  He  went  on  again.  The  ducks  continued  to  call : 
"en,  en,  en. "  Coyote  danced  to  the  sound.  Suddenly  he  danced 
into  the  water  and  the  ducks  flew  up.  He  went  on  again  until 
he  found  more  ducks  in  the  lake.  He  thought:  "I  will  try  to 
kill  them.  If  I  am  lucky  I  shall  kill  one  or  two  of  them,  and 
then  I  shall  have  something  to  eat. ' '  He  approached  them.  The 
ducks  heard  him  coming  and  sang:  "en,  en,  n."  Coyote  began 
to  dance  again  and  danced  into  the  water.  The  ducks  flew  up. 


VOL.  4]      Kroeber. — MytJis  of  South  Central  California.  237 

Coyote  said:  ''I  cannot  kill  them.  I  will  let  it  be."  Then  he 
went  on  until  he  came  north  of  Tulamni.  There  he  saw  a  man 
looking  into  the  water.  He  was  wa'k  (a  bird).  He  had  many 
small  fish.  Coyote  went  to  him.  The  man  asked  him:  "What  are 
you  doing  here?"  Coyote  said:  "Nothing.  I  came  to  see  you. 
I  want  to  eat  of  the  fish  you  have  caught. ' '  The  man  said :  ' '  Well, 
take  some.  There  is  what  I  have  caught."  Coyote  ate  of  them. 
He  ate  them  raw,  bones  and  all.  Then  he  said:  "I  will  go  on 
now. ' '  The  man  asked  him :  ' '  Where  are  you  going  ? ' '  Coyote 
said :  ' '  I  am  going  to  see  my  son. ' '  The  man  said :  ' '  You  will  see 
a  man  below  here  who  will  give  you  more  fish."  Coyote  went 
on  down  and  saw  a  man  sitting.  It  was  wakhat,  the  crane.  He 
reached  him.  "Hello!"  he  said.  "Hello!  Where  are  you 
going?"  asked  the  crane.  Coyote  said:  "I  came  to  see  you.  I 
want  to  eat  of  the  fish  you  are  catching."  "Very  well,"  said 
the  crane.  Coyote  ate.  He  ate  them  raw,  he  was  so  hungry  (or, 
greedy).  "Where  are  you  going?"  asked  the  crane.  "I  am 
going  to  see  my  son, ' '  said  Coyote.  The  crane  told  him :  ' '  You 
will  see  another  man  fishing."  Coyote  went  on.  Then  he  saw 
many  men  fishing,  batlawu  andyimelan  (a  diving  bird).  Coyote 
said:  "Hello!  Are  you  here?"  They  said:  "Yes."  He  said: 
' '  I  have  come  to  eat  of  your  fish. ' '  They  said :  ' '  Very  well,  there 
are  many  in  there.  Eat  as  many  as  you  want."  Then  Coyote 
made  a  fire  in  the  place  and  ate.  He  ate  all  he  wanted.  When 
he  had  enough,  he  said :  ' '  Why  do  you  not  go  over  there  ?  There 
are  many  large  fish  there.  I  was  there  a  long  time  ago."  He 
was  lying.  They  said:  "Show  us  how  to  catch  them."  Coyote 
said':  "Very  well.  But  show  me  how  you  make  your  noses  red." 
They  told  him:  "We  put  tule  into  the  hot  ashes  and  then  put 
it  on  our  noses  and  it  makes  them  red. ' '  Coyote  said :  "  It  is  good. 
I  wish  you  would  do  it  to  me. "  "  Very  well, ' '  they  said.  Then 
they  put  Coyote  into  the  ashes  and  glowing  tules.  Three  or  four 
of  them  held  him  down.  He  was  burned  in  the  fire  and  died. 
"Throw  him  away.  He  is  no  good,"  they  said,  and  then  went 
off.  Coyote  lay  there.  Next  day  he  woke  up.  He  said :  "  I  have 
been  asleep.  Where  did  they  go  to?"  Now  his  nose  was  white. 
The  flesh  had  come  off  and  the  bone  showed.  Then  he  came  to 
those  who  had  done  this  to  him.  'You  have  been  asleep,"  they 


238  University  of  California  Publications.   [AM.ARCH.ETH. 

said.  "Yes,  I  slept  a  little,"  he  said.  ''How  is  it  that  you  are 
red  and  I  am  white?"  "You  burned  it  too  much,"  they  said; 
"you  are  redder  than  we  are."  They  had  got  a  rock  ready  so 
that  it  looked  like  a  dakhdu  fish.  They  said  :  ' '  Here  is  a  dakhdu 
(a  large  fish  with  spines  on  its  back).  You  have  a  large  mouth, 
ours  are  little.  See  if  you  can  catch  it. ' '  Coyote  said :  ' '  Well, 
I  will  go  and  see. ' '  Then  they  went  to  the  place  to  dive.  Coyote 
jumped  in,  struck  the  rock,  and  mashed  his  head,  which  was 
already  only  bones.  He  died  again.  They  left  him  and  went  off. 
Next  day  Coyote  got  up  and  looked  around.  No  one  was  there. 
He  went  on.  He  said:  "Well  I  think  I  must  go  to  the  place  for 
which  I  started."  He  went  on  and  on  but  saw  no  one.  Then 
he  came  to  where  there  were  many  men.  They  asked  him : 
"Where  have  you  been?"  He  told  them:  "Oh,  about  the  land." 
They  asked:  "Where  are  you  going?"  He  said:  "I  am  going  to 
see  my  son."  They  said:  "It  is  well."  Then  he  told  them:  "I 
want  to  stay  here  for  a  time.  I  am  tired. ' '  The  chief  said : 
"Very  well." 

Next  day  they  began  to  gamble.  People  there  gambled  all 
the  time.  Now  the  prairie  falcon  had  been  gambling  and  had 
lost  one  of  his  eyes.  ' '  I  want  to  win  your  other  eye, ' '  his  oppon- 
ent said.  The  prairie  falcon  agreed  and  they  played  again. 
Then,  when  it  was  nearly  sunset,  the  prairie  falcon  had  lost  both 
his  eyes.  Then  he  took  a  sharp  grass  that  grows  on  the  moun- 
tains and  cut  out  his  eyes  and  gave  them  to  the  man  who  had 
won  them.  Now  he  sat  there.  Then  his  friend  the  crow  came 
to  him  and  said :  ' '  We  had  better  go  into  the  house. ' '  The  prairie 
falcon  said :  ' '  No,  I  will  not  go  into  the  house. ' '  The  crow  asked 
him :  ' '  What  are  you  going  to  do  ?  Will  you  sit  here  all  night  ? ' ' 
He  said:  "Well,  I  am  going  north.  I  have  a  relative  (nusus, 
father's  sister)  there."  In  the  middle  of  the  night  he  started. 
He  had  no  eyes.  The  crow  said :  "  I  will  go  with  you. "  "  Very 
well, ' '  he  said.  Then  he  sang  a  little  as  they  started  to  go. 

khoyu  nan  return  (=bad  luck  comes  to  ? )  me 

ama  nim  huwut  then  my  gambling 

t'awe  nan  beat  me 

dokoi  nim  gambling-implements  my 


VOL.  4]      Kroeber.— Myths  of  South  Central  California.  239 

So  he  sang  and  started.  lie  went  singing  all  the  time.  After 
a  long  time  he  said : ' '  Are  yon  hungry  ? ' '  The  crow  said :  ' '  Yes. ' ' 
' '  Where  is  there  a  bush  ? "  "  Here, ' '  said  the  crow.  The  prairie 
falcon  felt  around  until  he  touched  the  bush.  Suddenly  he  struck 
it  and  killed  a  rabbit.  Then  the  crow  ate.  When  he  had  finished, 
the  prairie  falcon  asked  him :  "  Do  you  want  water  ? ' '  The  crow 
said:  "Yes."  The  prairie  falcon  told  him:  "Turn  the  other 
way  around, ' '  and  the  crow  turned.  Soon  the  prairie  falcon  said 
to  him  :  ' '  Well,  now  you  can  turn  this  way. ' '  The  crow  turned 
around  and  there  was  a  little  spring  there.  The  prairie  falcon 
had  made  it  for  him.  Then  he  drank  and  they  went  on.  Now 
they  came  to  a  village.  A  man  said:  "What  is  the  matter  with 
the  prairie  falcon  ?  He  is  blind.  A  man  holds  him  by  the  hand 
and  leads  him.  It  is  the  crow,  his  friend."  The  prairie  falcon 
sang:  "Hiweti,  yona,  hiweti,  naamtayo,  lamyo,  hilalekiyo, 
tawate. ' '  They  stayed  at  that  village  one  night.  Then  they  went 
on  again.  Again  the  prairie  falcon  asked  his  companion:  "Are 
you  hungry?"  and  when  the  crow  said  that  he  was,  he  did  the 
same  as  before.  He  struck  a  bush  and  killed  a  rabbit  and  the 
crow  cooked  it  and  ate  it.  Then  he  asked  him :  "  Do  you  want  to 
drink?"  and  again  made  a  spring  for  him.  From  there  they 
went  on  again.  They  came  to  a  village.  The  people  said :  ' '  What 
is  the  matter  with  the  prairie  falcon  ?  He  is  blind  and  his  friend 
the  crow  is  leading  him  by  the  hand. ' '  They  asked  him :  ' '  What 
is  the  matter  ? ' '  He  said :  "  I  have  lost  my  eyes  gambling. ' '  The 
chief  said :  "  It  is  too  bad.  Where  are  you  going  now  ? ' '  He  said : 
"I  am  going  to  my  relative."  The  chief  asked  him:  "Will  you 
stay  here  ? "  He  said :  ' '  Yes,  for  a  little  while. ' '  The  chief  said 
to  him:  "We  would  like  you  to  sing."  "Very  well,"  he  said. 
Then  he  sang:  " Yahilulumai,  yahimai  lulumai,  sawawa  kan- 
ama,  taniyo,  yapiwi  piwimai,  tawana  tsiniyo,  hilalikiyo,  tawati 
tawat. "  The  prairie  falcon  and  the  crow  went  on  again  from 
that  place.  They  went  far.  Again  he  asked  the  crow :  ' '  Are  you 
hungry  ? ' '  and  killed  a  rabbit  and  made  water  for  him.  He  him- 
self ate  nothing.  He  only  used  tobacco.  That  was  his  food.  Then 
they  came  to  a  village.  (The  same  conversation  is  repeated). 
Then  he  sang  for  them:  "Hilamata,  hayaawiyu,  lokoyowani. 
waatin,  humuyu  hile. ' '  It  was  at  Kaweah  that  he  sang  thus.  In 


240  University  of  California  Publications.   [AM.ARCH.ETH. 

the  morning  they  went  on  again.  The  traveled  far.  Then  they 
came  to  Chowchilla.  They  approached  a  village.  (The  same  dia- 
logue is  repeated.)  "Stay  here  and  sing,"  they  said  and  he 
agreed.  He  sang:  "Hosimi,  hosiwimine,  wanit  wilima,  lananama, 
hosimi. "  That  is  the  end.  The  prairie  falcon  stayed  there. 

40. — YAUELMANI  YOKUTS.    THE  PRAIRIE  FALCON  LOSES. 

At  Kamupau,  south  of  San  Emidio,  many  people  lived.  The 
eagle  was  the  chief.  Coyote  was  there  too.  He  was  a  good  talker 
and  knew  everything.  The  prairie  falcon  was  there.  He  was 
fierce.  The  large  owl,  hutulu,  and  the  small  ground  owl,  toko- 
wets,  both  of  them  medicine-men,  were  there.  The  panther  was 
there.  He  was  a  good  hunter.  The  weasel,  the  fox,  and  the 
magpie  lived  there  too.  These  three  were  all  gamblers.  Many 
others  lived  there.  Every  day  the  hunters,  the  eagle,  the  prairie 
falcon  and  the  panther,  went  out  for  rabbits.  Coyote  brought 
wood  to  every  house.  He  never  went  hunting.  When  the  hunt- 
ers came  back  they  called  to  Coyote:  "  Tutunusut ! "  That  was 
his  name.  They  gave  him  the  intestines  of  the  rabbits  and  he 
ate  them.  They  also  gave  him  the  unborn  rabbits  (wasis).  When 
Coyote  received  these  he  spoke  over  them  and  blew  on  them  and 
made  them  larger  (sukhua,  to  make  or  create  by  blowing).  By 
the  time  he  came  to  his  house  they  were  large  rabbits.  In  this 
way  he  lived.  The  gamblers  played  every  day  at  the  gambling 
ground  with  the  hoop  and  poles.  Now  the  small  black-eared  rab- 
bit, tukuyun,  came  from  pitnani  (the  forks  of  Kern  river,  the 
country  of  the  Shoshonean  Pitanisha  or  Tiibatulabal).  Coyote 
said:  "A  stranger  has  come."  They  went  to  him  and  brought 
him  into  the  chief's  house.  He  was  bringing  food  with  him,  pine- 
nuts,  and  puhuk,  and  hapu.  This  he  gave  to  the  eagle.  Next 
morning  he  went  to  gamble  with  the  fox.  The  rabbit  won  every- 
thing. He  won  also  the  weasel's  beads.  He  won  all  that  the 
magpie  had.  He  won  everything  from  all  the  gamblers.  Coyote 
was  about  as  an  attendant.  He  helped  them  as  they  played  and 
was  paid  for  it.  He  did  not  ask  to  receive  much.  He  did  not 
expect  to  be  made  rich.  In  the  evening  they  stopped  playing 
because  the  rabbit  had  won  everything.  Early  in  the  morning 
they  began  again.  Now  the  rabbit  gambled  with  the  prairie  fal- 


VOL.  4]      Kroeber.— Myths  of  South  Central  California.  241 

con.  The  prairie  falcon  won  everything  he  had.  He  won  all  that 
the  rabbit  had  won  the  day  before  as  well  as  the  beads  which 
the  eagle  had  given  him  for  the  food  which  he  had  brought.  Then 
the  rabbit  told  him :  "  I  have  nothing  more. ' '  But  the  prairie 
falcon  said  to  him :  ' '  Play  for  your  ear. '  The  rabbit  agreed. 
Then  they  played  and  the  prairie  falcon  won  his  ear.  He  cut  it 
off.  "Try  with  the  other,"  he  said,  and  the  rabbit  consented. 
Then  Coyote  said  to  the  rabbit:  "Wait."  Then  he  went  off  to 
the  wife  of  the  prairie  falcon,  who  was  in  the  house  making  a 
basket.  He  told  her:  "I  want  my  gambling  hoop.  It  is  in  the 
bed. ' '  The  woman  said :  ' '  I  cannot  find  it. ' '  Coyote  went  there 
and  found  it.  Then  he  cohabited  with  the  woman.  Then  the 
prairie  falcon  began  to  lose.  The  rabbit  won  everything  back 
again.  He  won  everything  that  he  had  lost.  He  won  everything 
that  the  prairie  falcon  had.  Then  the  prairie  falcon  thought: 
"To-night  I  must  go  away  and  die.  I  have  nothing  left."  That 
night  he  went  off  toward  the  coast.  In  the  morning  he  was  in 
the  hills.  He  saw  smoke.  He  went  to  the  house  there.  An  old 
woman  and  a  girl  were  there.  They  took  him  in.  The  old 
woman  got  up  and  gave  him  acorn  soup  and  fish  to  eat.  Then 
the  prairie  falcon  was  married  again.  He  married  that  girl.  At 
night  two  boys  came  fighting.  They  were  the  girl 's  brothers.  As 
they  fought  outside  the  house,  the  old  woman  went  out  and  told 
them :  "  Be  quiet.  Your  brother-in-law  is  inside.  It  is  the  prairie 
falcon. ' '  They  laughed  and  fought ;  then  they  came  in  and  ate. 
Then  the  old  woman  told  them  to  go  outside  again.  They  went 
out.  Early  in  the  morning  they  went  to  the  ocean  to  fish.  The 
prairie  falcon  went  out  into  the  brush  and  set  snares  for  rabbits. 
He  filled  two  sacks  with  rabbits  and  came  home  while  it  was  still 
morning.  At  night  the  two  boys  came  again  and  ate  of  the 
rabbits.  They  said:  "Our  brother-in-law  has  killed  game.  We 
will  eat  it.  He  is  a  good  hunter.  In  the  morning  we  will  take 
him  with  us  to  catch  fish. ' '  Then  the  girl  said :  ' '  Are  you  going 
fishing  in  the  morning?"  The  prairie  falcon  said:  "Yes,  I  will 
go."  In  the  morning  they  went.  They  went  in  a  boat  out  on 
the  ocean.  They  caught  fish  and  filled  the  boat.  Then  the  wind 
blew  the  boat  out  to  sea.  The  two  boys  (by  sukhua,  magic  by 
blowing)  then  created  a  string  with  which  they  pulled  the  boat 


242  University  of  California  Publications.   [AM.ARCH.ETH. 

back  to  land.  Next  day  the  prairie  falcon  went  fishing  again 
with  his  brothers-in-law.  They  caught  many  fish  and  filled  the 
boat.  Now  the  wind  came  and  blew  them  out  to  sea  again.  Then 
the  prairie  falcon  fell  into  the  water  and  drowned.  The  two 
boys  fought  in  the  boat  because  their  brother-in-law  was  dead. 
When  they  came  to  land  they  fought  again.  Then  they  went  home. 

Now  Coyote,  another  coyote  who  was  the  prairie  falcon's 
mother's  brother,  knew  that  he  was  dead.  He  knew  it  because 
he  had  supernatural  power  (tipni).  He  was  in  the  house  with 
his  wife.  "When  the  prairie  falcon  died  he  felt  bad.  His  heart 
came  out  of  his  mouth,  he  felt  so  sorry.  He  would  have  died,  but 
he  caught  his  heart  as  it  was  in  the  air  and  put  it  back  into  his 
mouth.  Then  he  went  to  where  the  prairie  falcon's  new  wife 
was.  "Where  is  the  prairie  falcon?'  he  asked  the  old  woman. 
Then  the  two  boys  took  him  where  the  prairie  falcon  had  died. 
"Where  did  he  fall  in?"  Coyote  asked.  "Here,"  they  said. 
Then  he  took  tobacco  and  dived  far  down  into  the  water.  He 
came  to  seven  trails.  He  could  not  tell  which  way  to  go.  Then 
he  took  his  tobacco  and  by  means  of  it  chose  one  trail.  He  fol- 
lowed this  and  came  to  a  large  communal  house  (gawi).  There 
he  saw  a  man  with  his  knees  burning.  "You  are  burning,"  he 
said.  He  did  not  answer.  Coyote  took  tobacco,  spoke  over  it, 
and  made  the  person  able  to  talk  again.  The  prairie  falcon  was 
in  the  house.  Only  his  feathers  were  left.  Now  he  sang  in  the 
Tokye  (Chumash)  language:  "Kapikh,  tata,  shakhshaniwash, 
salialama.  You  came,  my  uncle.  You  will  die."  Then  Coyote 
sang  also.  He  sang:  "I  am  dead  already.  You  know  it."  He 
meant  that  he  should  have  died  when  he  had  jumped  into  the 
water,  and  therefore  could  not  really  die.  Then  he  took  the  prairie 
falcon.  No  one  was  there  except  the  old  man  whose  knees  were 
being  burned  for  wood.  So  Coyote  took  the  prairie  falcon  back 
with  him.  Then  he  put  blue  rock-paint  on  him  as  medicine  and 
made  him  well  again.  This  was  through  his  supernatural  power. 
He  took  a  small  sharp  grass  and  stuck  him  in  the  anus.  Then  the 
prairie  falcon  got  up. 

The  girl,  the  old  woman,  and  the  two  boys  were  spiders  of  a 
species  called  ulumush  or  kolokilwi.  The  prairie  falcon's  uncle. 
Coyote,  came  from  Nohomo,  southwest  of  San  Emidio. 


VOL.  4]       Kroeber. — Myths  of  South  Central  California.  243 

41. — GITANEMUK  SHOSHONEAN.    THE  PANTHER'S  CHILDREN 
AND  COYOTE. 

Told  by  a  Yauelmani  Yokuts. 

Two  women  lived  alone.  One  was  a  woman  and  the  other  a 
girl.  The  old  woman  was  the  jimson  weed ;  the  girl  the  cottontail 
rabbit.  They  lived  west  above  Tejon  creek.  In  the  morning  the 
old  woman  saw  a  dead  deer  lying  at  the  door.  She  did  not  see 
who  brought  it.  She  took  the  deer,  sliced  it,  dried  the  meat,  and 
said  nothing.  She  did  not  ask  the  girl  about  it.  Next  day  the 
same  thing  happened.  Three  times  it  happened.  Then  the  girl 
gave  birth  to  two  boys,  twins.  They  saw  no  one.  She  did  not 
see  her  husband.  The  boys  grew  up  and  she  put  them  into  a 
cradle.  Coyote  lived  at  Sututaiwieyau  and  had  seven  sons.  He 
said :  "  I  will  go  to  see  what  they  are  doing. ' '  The  mother  of  the 
two  boys  was  on  the  plain  gathering  seeds.  The  old  woman  was 
caring  for  the  children.  Coyote  came  to  the  house.  He  found 
that  they  had  plenty  of  deer  meat  and  acorn  mush.  The  old 
woman  said  to  him :  ' '  Will  you  have  meat  and  acorn  mush  ? ' ' 
He  said:  "Yes."  Then  she  gave  him  the  food  and  he  ate.  After 
eating  he  was  thirsty.  She  told  him:  "There  is  water  in  the 
pitched  basket  (made  with  pinon  gum)."  Coyote  said:  "I  do 
not  drink  from  that  kind.  The  pitch  stinks. ' '  She  told  him : 
' '  What  kind  do  you  drink  from  ? ' '  He  said :  "  I  drink  from  an 
openwork  winnowing  basket  (khali)."  She  asked  him:  "How 
does  it  hold  water?"  He  said:  "Put  leaves  into  it."  The  old 
woman  went  and  tried  to  bring  water  in  an  openwork  basket. 
The  water  kept  running  out,  but  she  kept  trying  a  long  time. 
Meanwhile  Coyote  took  the  two  boys  and  went  off,  making  a 
circuit.  The  mother  was  far  off  on  the  plain  gathering  seeds. 
At  night  she  came  home.  "Where  are  my  boys?"  she  asked 
her  mother.  The  old  woman  said:  "Coyote  came  here.  I  think 
he  stole  them."  Now  the  panther  came.  "Where  are  the  chil- 
dren?" he  said.  "Coyote  stole  them,"  they  told  him.  He  took 
pinenuts  and  puhuk  and  hapu  in  a  sack  and  started  to  look  for 
his  children.  He  looked  all  over  the  country.  He  looked  for  them 
for  ten  years,  for  about  twelve  years.  Now  the  boys  were  large 
enough  to  go  out  and  hunt  rabbits.  Then  Coyote  told  them :  "  Do 


244  University  of  California  Publications.   [AM.ARCH.ETH. 

not  go  far.  A  man  may  come  here.  He  is  bad.  He  will  catch 
you  and  kill  you."  He  was  afraid  their  father  would  come. 
Next  day  the  boys  went  on  the  mountain  and  killed  a  deer.  Then 
one  day  they  went  to  the  top  of  the  mountain  Wachkiu.  From 
there  they  looked  down  on  the  plain  on  the  other  side.  When 
they  had  rested,  they  got  up  to  go.  The  younger  one  was  behind. 
Then  he  saw  a  man  coming.  He  was  dark  all  over  with  a  little 
white  on  his  breast.  He  said :  ' '  See,  the  one  is  coming  of  whom 
our  father  told  us,  the  dangerous  one."  The  panther  called: 
"Where  are  you  going?  Stop.  I  am  your  father."  Then  the 
younger  brother  said :  ' '  Let  us  wait. ' '  They  stopped.  ' '  Hello, ' ' 
said  the  panther.  "Hello,"  they  told  him.  He  asked  them: 
' '  Why  do  you  run  away  ?  I  am  your  father.  Coyote  is  not  your 
father."  Then  he  took  one  by  each  hand  and  they  went.  Soon 
the  old  man  became  tired  and  fell.  He  got  up  again,  took  pine- 
nuts  and  puhuk  and  hapu  from  his  sack,  and  gave  them  to  the 
boys  to  eat.  They  ate  them  all.  Then  he  asked  them:  "How 
does  he  do  when  he  kills  deer?"  They  told  him:  "He  eats  all 
the  intestines  before  he  takes  it  home."  Then  their  father  told 
them:  "Well,  I  will  do  that."  Now  he  killed  a  deer.  Then  the 
boys  went  and  called  Coyote  to  come.  They  said  they  had  killed 
a  deer.  Coyote  came.  "Whose  track  is  that?"  he  said.  The 
older  boy  said :  "  It  is  my  track, ' '  and  Coyote  was  satisfied.  Then 
he  went  to  the  deer.  He  wanted  to  eat  of  it.  He  nearly  bit  at 
it  when  he  jumped  in  fear.  Three  times  he  was  afraid  and  jumped 
aside.  Then  he  went  to  it  and  ate.  Now  the  panther  jumped  on 
him,  killed  him,  and  tore  him  to  pieces.  He  strewed  his  flesh 
over  the  ground.  Then  he  went  to  the  house.  Coyote's  children 
were  playing  in  a  swing.  They  did  not  work  or  hunt  but  played 
constantly.  The  panther  killed  them  all.  He  took  them  by  the  feet 
and  struck  them  on  the  ground.  He  entered  the  house  where 
Coyote 's  wife  was,  took  her  by  the  feet,  and  threw  her  out.  Then 
he  burned  the  house  and  went  off.  He  said:  "I  am  going.  I 
travel  over  the  country." 


VOL.  4]       Kroeber. — Myths  of  South  Central  California.  245 


III.     ABSTRACTS. 

1.  Rumsien   Costanoan.     Water   covers   the  world.      The  humming-bird 
and  Coyote  are  on  Pico  Blanco.     They  fly  to  the  Sierra  del  Gabilan.     The 
water  subsides.     Coyote  finds  a  woman  and  by  order  of  the  eagle  marries 
her.     The  manner  of  making  children  is  discussed.     Coyote  makes  his  wife 
louse  him  and  swallow  what  she  finds.    She  becomes  pregnant  and  runs  away. 
He  follows,  vainly  trying  to  delay  her,  until  she  throws  herself  into  the 
ocean.     (Cf.  7,  11,  15,  25,  37.) 

2.  Rumsien   Costanoan.     Coyote  marries  a  second  wife  to  have  more 
children.     He  sends  the  children  out  to  found  villages  with  different  lan- 
guages.    He  gives  the  people  bow  and  arrows  and  instructs  them  how  to 
gather  and  prepare  food.    He  becomes  old  and  goes  away. 

3.  Rumsien  Costanoan.     Coyote  vainly  tries  to  kill  the  humming-bird. 
At  last  he  swallows  him,  but  the  humming-bird  scratches  him  so  that  he  is 
forced  to  let  him  out. 

4.  Rumsien  Costanoan.    Coyote  takes  his  wife  to  the  ocean  after  warn- 
ing her  not  to  be  frightened  at  the  sea  animals.     He  forgets  to  tell  her 
of   one,   which   when  it  appears   frightens   the   woman   to   death.     Coyote 
restores  her  to  life. 

5.     Rumsien  Costanoan.     Coyote  wishing  to  keep  his  cooked  salmon  for 
himself,  pretends  to  his  children  that  he  is  eating  ashes. 

6.  Rumsien  Costanoan.     Coyote,  pretending  to  have  a  thorn  in  his  eye, 
comes  to  women.    When  one  of  them  tries  to  draw  it,  he  runs  off  with  her. 

7.  Pohonichi  Miwok.    At  first  there  is  only  water.    Coyote  sends  a  duck 
to  dive  and  it  brings  up  earth,  from  which  he  makes  the  world.     (Cf.  1, 
11,  15,  25,  37.) 

8.  Pohonichi  Miwok.     The  turtle,  far  in  the  mountains,  alone  has  fire. 
Coyote  turns  himself  into  a  piece  of  wood,  is  put  into  the  fire,  and  runs 
off  with  it  to  the  Miwok.     (Cf.  16,  26.) 

9.  Pohonichi  Miwok.  On  the  first  human  death,  Coyote  wishes  to  revive 
the  person,  but  the  meadow  lark,  thinking  there  will  be  no  room  on  the 
earth,   prevails  that  men  should   die.     Coyote  institutes  cremation  of  the 
dead.     (Cf.  12,  17,  38.) 

10.  Pohonichi  Miwok.    The  grizzly  bear  and  the  deer,  two  women,  each 
have  two  children.     The  two  women  go  out  together  and  the  grizzly  bear 
kills  the  deer.    The  deer  children  kill  the  two  bear  children  in  a  sweat-house, 
and  flee  from  the  grizzly  bear  to  their  grandfather.     As  she  enters  his 
sweat-house  she  is  killed  by  his  supernatural  power.     The  two  boys  become 
thunders.  (For  the  thunder  twins,  cf.  23.    Cf.  the  Kwakiutl,  Qatloltq,  Thomp- 
son, Kathlamet,  and  Lutuami  parallels  cited  by  Dixon,  341 ;  also  Dixon,  79, 
and  Powers,  341.) 

11.  Gashowu   Yokuts.     At  the  bidding  of  the  prairie   falcon  various 
birds  and  water  animals  dive  for  earth  when  everything  is  water.    A  small 
duck  alone  reaches  the  bottom.   From  a  little  sand  left  under  his  finger  nail 
the  prairie  falcon,  adding  tobacco,  makes  the  earth  and  the  mountains  by 


246  University  of  California  Publications.   [AM.ARCH.ETH. 

dropping  the  mixture  into  the  water.  The  raven's  mountains,  now  the 
Sierra  Nevada,  but  then  along  the  coast,  being  the  larger,  the  prairie  falcon 
interchanges  them.  (Cf.  1,  7,  15,  25,  37.) 

12.  Gashowu   Yolcuts.     At   a  person's   death  it   is   resolved  that   after 
three  days  people  are  to  return  to  life.     The  meadow  lark,  being  newly 
married,  dislikes  the  stench  of  the  corpse  and  persuades  the  people  to  burn 
it.     (Cf.  9,  17,  38.) 

13.  Gashowu  Yolcuts.     Coyote's  pretense  to  be  a  medicine  man  is  ex- 
posed when  he  fails  to  revive  the  dead  prairie  falcon.     The  white  owl  brings 
him  back  to  life. 

14.  Gashowu  Yolcuts.     A  woman,   the  hawk,  lives  alone  and  hides  all 
the  deer.     The  people  hunt  in  vain.     The  wolf  and  Coyote  find  her  and  are 
given  food.    The  people  discover  that  their  families  are  supplied  with  meat, 
The  magpie,  who  has  supernatural  knowledge,  informs  the  chief,  the  eagle, 
and  the  people  all  go  to  the  woman,  who  is  compelled  to  feed  them.     Many 
men  wish  to  marry  her,  but  all  fail.     They  leave,  but  Coyote,  pretending 
sickness,  remains.     By  making  a  storm  he  persuades  her  to  admit  him  into 
the  house.     She  knows  his  thoughts  and  long  resists  his  desires,  but  finally 
consents  to  marry  him.     She  meets  him  with  a  rattlesnake,  but  is  foiled  by 
his  use  of  a  stick  on  which  the  rattlesnake  is  disabled. 

The  condor,  the  son  of  Coyote  and  the  woman,  is  made  to  grow  up  quickly 
by  being  immersed  in  water  (cf.  34),  and  becomes  a  famous  gambler. 
When  traveling  he  aims  at  an  owl,  who,  being  a  medicine  man,  sings  and 
changes  him  into  a  condor  who  flies  off.  When  Coyote  returns  his  wife  kills 
him  with  a  rattlesnake.  The  condor  lives  in  the  sky,  killing  people  for 
food.  He  carries  up  his  mother  and  two  little  boys  and  a  girl.  He  keeps 
the  children  to  eat  later.  His  mother  instructs  them.  When  he  returns  to 
drink  for  half  a  day  and  then  to  mount  to  the  higher  sky  from  which  he 
will  descend  to  kill  them,  they  shoot  at  him.  Half  a  day's  shooting  has 
no  apparent  effect  and  the  woman  and  the  children  hide.  The  condor  rises, 
but  finally  falls  dead  and  is  burnt.  His  eyes  fly  out,  are  lost  in  the  brush. 
and  turn  to  condors.  The  woman  and  the  little  girl  return  to  earth  on  a 
feather  rope.  The  two  boys  go  south  in  the  sky  until  they  reach  the  earth. 
They  come  to  people  who  can  neither  talk  nor  eat  and  who  live  by  odor. 
The  boys  cut  mouths  and  tongues  for  them  and  return  home. 

15.  Truhohi  Yolcuts.     The  world  is  covered  with  water.     A  mountain 
top  is  the  only  land.     The  people  eat  this  for  food.     The  eagle,  urged  by 
Coyote,  succeeds  in  having  the  mudhen  bring  up  earth  by  diving.     From 
this  earth  mixed  with  seeds,  the  world  is  made.     The  wolf  is  sent  out  to 
go  around  it.     Coyote,  though  forbidden,  also  makes  the  circuit,  and,  break- 
ing the  soft  ground  in  his   journey,   produces   the   mountains.      The  eagle 
sends  the  prairie   falcon   and  the  raven  northward  to  make  the  mountain 
ranges.     At  first  the  Coast  Eange  is  higher  than  the  Sierra  Nevada.     The 
eagle  sends  off  the  animals  to  different  places  to  become  people.     (Usually 
in  Indian  myths  the  "first  people"  turn  to  animals.     Cf.  32).     The  eagle 
himself  rises  to  the  sky.   To  his  surprise  Coyote  follows  him.     (Cf.  1,  7,  11, 
25,  37.) 

16.  Truhohi   Yolcuts.     The   crow,   sent  out  by  the   eagle,   succeeds  in 
finding  fire.     The  roadrunner,  the  fox,  the  crow,  and  Coyote  go  north,  and 


VOL.  4]       Kroeber.—MytJis  of  South  Central  California.  247 

when  the  people  are  asleep  steal  fire.  Coyote  delays  to  kill  a  child  and  13 
pursued.  Turning  in  his  flight,  he  makes  the  crooked  course  of  the  San 
Joaquin  river.  Eeaching  his  sweat-house  he  is  safe  from  pursuit.  (Cf. 
8,  26.) 

17.  Truhohi  Yakuts.     Two  insects  dispute  whether  people  are  to  live 
or  die.     The  one  favoring  death  prevails.     Coyote  is  satisfied  because  there 
will  be  festivities  at  mourning  ceremonies.     (Cf.  9,  12,  38.) 

18.  Truhohi  Yakuts.     People  living  in  the  Coast  Eange  keep  the  sun. 
Coyote  and  the  eagle  take  it  away  from  them.     The  people  turn  to  a  circle 
of  stones. 

19.  TacM  Yakuts.     The  antelope  and  deer  race.     Their  course  is  the 
Milky  Way.    The  antelope  wins  and  lives  in  the  plains.    The  deer  goes  into 
the  brush.     (Many  and  close  eastern  parallels.     Cf.  Pawnee  and  Blackfoot, 
by  Grinnell;  also  Arapaho,  Field  Columbian  Mus.  Anthr.  Ser.  V,  16.) 

20.  Tachi  Yakuts.     The  Pleiades  are  five  girls  who  are  in  love  with 
a  flea.     In  summer  he  becomes  sick  and  they  leave  him  while  he  is  asleep. 
He  pursues  and  they  rise  to  the  sky.     He  follows  them  and  is  a  star  near 
them.     (See  footnote  as  to  Yaudanchi  version.) 

21.  Tachi  Yakuts.    The  wolf  gives  his  wife,  the  crane,  and  his  children 
nothing  to  eat.    She  leaves  him.    He  follows  and  tries  to  kill  her.    She  stabs 
him  to  the  heart  with   her  bill.     She   goes   off   with   her  two   boys,    and 
they  become  stars  in  the  constellation  Orion. 

22.  Tachi  Yakuts.    The  bald  eagle  steals  men's  wives.    When  he  takes 
the  prairie  falcon's,  the  latter  pursues  and  kills  him. 

23.  Tachi  Yakuts.     Two  boys,  twins,  are  abused  by  their  parents  be- 
cause they  are  covere4  with  sores.     Their  grandmother  pities  them.     Their 
parents  leave  with  the  people  during  a  famine.     The  boys  catch  an  abun- 
dance of  fish  in  a  spring.     They  acquire  supernatural  power,  turning  to 
thunders.     Their  mother's  brother  visits  them  and  finds  them  provided  with 
food.     Their  parents  come  with  other  people  and  are  killed.     (Cf.  No.  10 
and  the  Yuki  story  given.) 

24.  Tachi  Yakuts.     A  woman  dies.     Her  husband  stays  by  her  grave. 
She  arises  from  the  ground  and  for  six  nights  he  follows  her  on  her  journey 
to  the  island  of  the  dead.     He  cannot  cross  the  bridge  to  the  island  until 
permitted  by  the  chief  of  that  country.     A  bird,  darting  up  to  frighten  him 
into  falling  off,  fails.     He  sees  the  people  dancing.     During  the  night  he 
is  with  his  wife.     In  the  morning  she  is  a  fallen  tree.     After  six  days  the 
chief  sends  him  home.     He  is  told  not  to  show  himself  for  six  days.    After 
five  days  he  comes  out  from  concealment  and  tells  the  people  his  experiences. 
In  the  morning  a  rattlesnake  bites  him  and  he  dies.     From  him  the  people 
learn  that  the  island  is  continually  filling  up  with  the  dead.    They  are  taken 
to  bathe,  when  a  bird  frightens  them  and  many  turn  to  fish  and  birds. 
In  this  way  room  is  made  on  the  island  for  others  that  die.     (Cf.  35.) 

25.  Wiikchamni  Yakuts.     The  world  is  covered  with  water,  except  for 
one  small  spot  on  which  are  the  eagle  and  Coyote.     They  send  the  duck 
to  dive  to  the  bottom  and  it  brings  them  earth.     From  this  they  make  the 
world.    They  make  six  men  and  six  women,  whom  they  send  out  in  different 
directions.    Coyote,  sent  out  by  the  eagle  to  see  what  the  people  do,  reports 
that  they  are  eating  the  earth.     The  eagle  sends  out  the  dove  and  it  finds 


248  University  of  California  Publications.    [AM.ARCH.ETH. 

a  grain  of  meal.     From  this  the  eagle  makes  seeds  all  over  the  earth,  and 
the  people  live  on  these.     (Cf.  1,  7,  11,  15,  37.) 

26.  YaudancM  YoTcuts.     Fire  is  kept  by  a  man  in  the  plains  to  the 
west.     The   antelope   and  other   animals   steal  it,   but   on  their   return   the 
fire  is  always  put  out  by  rain.     The  jackrabbit  burrows  and  holds  the  fire 
in  his  hands  under  his  belly.      (Cf.  Ute,  Journ.  Am.  Folk-lore,  XIV,  259, 
1901.)     He  returns  successfully.     (Cf.  8,  16.) 

27.  YaudancM  Yokuts.     The  eagle  is  chief.     The  condor  attempts  to 
replace  him.     The  eagle  catches  him  from  ambush  and  the  condor  acknowl- 
edges his  supremacy.     (Cf.  the  actual  practice  of  the  Plains  tribes  in  catch- 
ing eagles.) 

28.  YaudancM  Yokuts.     The  eagle's  son,  though  forbidden,  goes  over 
a  hill  where  he  meets  people.     Several  girls  abuse  him.     Coyote  and  the 
black-faced   dog   try   to   shoot   him   but   fail.     Having   returned   home,   the 
eagle's  son  goes  out  again.     This  time  he  is  fine  in  appearance  and  the  girls 
fall   in   love  with   him.      They   follow   him,  but   none   are   received   by   his 
grandmother  except  the  woodpecker,  who  before  had  not  abused  him.     The 
others  strike  her  on  the  head  and  make  it  red.     She  throws  fire  and  ashes 
at  them,  spotting  them  with  red,  black,  and  gray.     The  eagle's  son  goes 
over  the  hill  once  more  and  kills  Coyote  and  the  dog. 

29.  Yaudanchi  YoTcuts.     The  prairie  falcon,  traveling,  comes  to  a  vil- 
lage.    He  frightens  the  people,  kills  them,  and  hangs  up  their  hair  on  trees. 

30.  Yaudanchi  YoTcuts.     The  prairie  falcon  leaves  his  wife  in  charge 
of  Coyote,  who  sleeps,  and  she  is  carried  to  the  sky  by  the  condor.     The 
lizard  at  last  locates  her  and  the  fly  finds  her.     The  prairie  falcon  goes  up 
and  brings  her  back. 

31.  Yaudanchi  YoTcuts.  The  prairie  falcon  wins  at  playing.  Coyote 
goes  to  a  mountain  and  rolls  himself  down  until  he  looks  like  the  prairie 
falcon.  He  then  goes  to  the  prairie  falcon's  wife  and  cohabits  with  her. 
From  that  time  the  prairie  falcon's  opponents  win  back  what  they  have 
lost.  (Cf.  40.) 

32.  YaudancM  YoTcuts.     The  foothill  people  fight  those  of  the  plains. 
Coyote  and  the  humming-bird  are  the  leaders.    They  beat  the  plains  people, 
but  cannot  kill  a  fish  and  the  turtle.    Coyote  makes  arrow  points  of  his  own 
leg  bone  and  kills  them  both.     Then  the  eagle  sends  off  the  people    (to 
become  animals;  cf.  15),  and  each  one  tells  how  he  will  live.     They  go  off 
and  turn  to  animals. 

33.  YaundancM  YoTcuts.    Thunder  and  Whirlwind  both  hide  the  other's 
son,  but  each  succeeds  in  recovering  his  own. 

34.  YaudancM  (?)   YoTcuts.     A  girl  living  alone  with  her  mother  goes 
too  far  to  gather  clover,  and,  disobeying  her  instructions,  eats  some.     A 
grizzly  b^ar  devours  her.    Her  mother  finds  a  trace  of  blood  where  she  has 
been  killed,  puts  it  in  a  basket,  and,  leaving  it  in  a  spring,   finds  a  boy 
in  it.     She  makes  bows  and  arrows  for  her  grandson,  who  kills  birds  of 
different  kinds.     He  takes  a  good  bow  left  by  his  dead  relatives.     He  goes 
and  shouts  for  the  grizzly  bear.     Several  come  but  he  sends  them  back. 
When  the  one  comes  that  has  killed  his  mother,  he  kills  him.     He  sets  up 
the  skin  at  the  spring,  and  sends  his  grandmother  to  bring  him  water.     She 
is  frightened,  runs,  and  brings  him  urine.     He  tells  her  what  he  has  clone. 


VOL.  4]      Kroeber.— Myths  of  South  Central  California.  249 

35.  Yaudanchi   Yolcuts.     A  woman   dies.     Her   husband  stays  at   her 
grave.     His  wife  arises  from  the  ground  and  he  follows  her  for  several 
nights.    She  crosses  the  bridge  to  the  world  of  the  dead.    He  cannot  follow 
her  until  permitted  by  the  guardians.     He  is  hungry  and  is  given  one  pine- 
nut,  which  multiplies  and  satisfies  him.      (A  common  episode  in  American 
mythologies.)     At  night  the  people  dance.     He  is  told  to  return  with  his 
wife,  but  they  are  forbidden  to  go  to  sleep.    The  third  night  he  sleeps,  and 
in  the  morning  lies  beside  a  log.     (Cf.  24.) 

36.  Yaudanchi  Yolcuts.    A  man  and  his  wife  pass  the  night  in  a  cave. 
The  man  calls  owls  by  hooting  and  shoots  them.     Having  killed  two,  he 
wishes  to  stop,  but  his  wife  urges  him  to  continue.     The  owls  come  in  great 
numbers  and  attack  them.     He  resists,  but  finally  both  are  killed. 

37.  Yauelmani  Yolcuts.     The  world  is  covered  with  water.     In  a  nest 
on  a  tree   (upright  wood)   arising  from  the  water,  are  the  eagle  and  six 
others,  including  Coyote.     The  eagle  sends  ducks  to  dive  and  finally  receives 
earth.     Mixing  this  with  seeds,  he  makes  the  world.     In  the  morning  the 
eagle  tells  the  wolf  to  shout.     The  earth  disappears.     They  make  the  world 
over  again.     When  the  wolf  shouts  in  the  morning,  there  is  an  earthquake, 
but  the  earth  remains.     Coyote  wishes  to  shout  also,  but  the  earth  scarcely 
trembles.     Now  they  live  on  the  earth.     Every  evening  tobacco  enters  the 
water.     Coyote  makes  a  snare  and  catches  it.     It  is  burning  like  fire.     It 
says  that  if  used  its  power  is  to  bring  anything  to  pass  that  is  desired. 
(This  episode  resembles  a  Yurok  myth  of  the  origin  of  obsidian.)      The 
prairie  falcon  uses  the  tobacco  and  on  the  first  trial  makes  rain.    Coyote  kills 
a  deer  and  makes  a  woman  of  it.    Being  killed  by  his  first  cohabitation  with 
her,  he  is  revived  by  the  prairie  falcon.    He  makes  her  over  and  is  success- 
ful.    (Cf.  1,  7,  11,  15,  25.)     The  prairie  falcon  lives  from  tobacco  alone 
(like  the  Yurok  hero  Pulekukwerek). 

38.  Yauelmani  Yolcuts.     Coyote  wants  human  hands  to  be  closed  like 
his,  but  the  lizard  prevails  and  people  have  hands  with  fingers.    Then  Coyote 
makes  it  that  people  die.     (Cf.  9,  17.     For  the  incident  of  the  hand,  cf. 
Maidu,  Bull.  Am.  Mus.  Nat.  Hist.  XVII,  42;   Yana,  Great.  Myths  Prim. 
Am.,  479;  also  Yuki,  etc.) 

39.  Yauelmani  Yakuts.    The  humming-bird,  Coyote's  son,  wins  at  gam- 
bling, and  the  people  try  to  kill  him  by  causing  a  great  fire.     Coyote  and 
his  son  escape  to  a  distant  mountain.     Coyote  returns.     He  gathers  wood. 
He  travels  to  the  moon,  thunder,  sun,  night,  and  persuades  them  not  to 
come.     He  returns  and  for  six  months  there  is  no  light  and  constant  rain. 
Finally  Coyote,  returning  the  eagle's  gifts,  consents  to  bring  back  the  sun. 
He  visits  the  same  powers  as  before,  and  when  he  shouts  they  reappear. 

Coyote  starts  to  visit  his  son.  He  catches  fish  but  rejects  all  except  the 
biggest.  Going  on,  he  cooks  them  all.  He  drinks  alkal:  -vater  am'  becomes 
sick.  When  he  returns  to  his  cooking,  he  finds  only  the  tails.  A  bird  has 
eaten  the  fish.  Coyote  finds  him  and  asks  for  half  the  fish.  The  bird  vomits 
them.  Coyote  tries  to  kill  him  but  after  following  him  a  long  time  loses 
him.  He  comes  to  Tulare  lake  and  tries  to  kill  ducks.  They  quack  and 
he  dances  to  the  sound  until  he  falls  into  the  water.  He  comes  to  a  bird 
that  gives  him  fish,  and  then  to  another.  He  comes  to  other  birds  and  asks 
to  have  his  nose  made  red.  They  hold  him  in  the  fire  until  he  is  dead.  He 
returns  to  life  and  rejoins  them.  They  tell  him  to  dive  for  what  appears 


250  University  of  California  Publications.  [AM.ARCH.ETH. 

to  be  a  fish.     He  jumps  into  the  water  and  is  dashed  to  death  on  a  rock. 
He  comes  to  life  and  goes  on.     He  reaches  a  village  where  he  stays. 

The  people  there  gamble.  The  prairie  falcon  loses  everything.  (Cf.  31, 
40.)  He  stakes  his  eyes  and  loses  them.  At  night,  accompanied  by  his 
friend  the  crow,  he  starts  to  go  northward.  As  he  goes  he  sings.  When 
the  crow  becomes  hungry  and  thirsty,  he  makes  food  and  water  for  him. 
They  spend  the  night  in  a  village.  They  go  on.  The  prairie  falcon  still 
sings.  They  reach  another  village.  The  third  night  they  reach  the  Kaweah 
river.  The  fourth  night  they  come  to  the  Chowchilla. 

40.  Yauelmam  Yokuts.     Many  people  live  together,  with  the  eagle  as 
chief.     Coyote  is  servant.     The  prairie  falcon  is  a  successful  gambler.     The 
rabbit  visits  the  people  and  wins  all  they  have.     Next  day  he  gambles  with 
the  prairie  falcon  and  loses  everything.     He  loses  one  ear  and  stakes  the 
second.     Then  Coyote  goes  to  the  prairie  falcon's  wife  and  cohabits  with 
her.     Now  the  prairie  falcon  loses  everything  that  he  has.     (Cf.  31.)     That 
night  he  goes  off  toward  the  coast.     He  comes  to  an  old  woman  and  a  girl. 
He  marries  the  girl.    At  night  her  two  brothers,  who  constantly  fight,  come 
in.     In  the  morning  they  go  fishing  and  he  catches  rabbits.     Next  day  he 
goes  with  them  on  the  ocean.     A  wind  blows  the  boat  out  to  sea.     The  two 
boys  by  magic  make  a  rope  which  draws  them  back  to  land.     Next  day  the 
same   thing   happens,   but   the   prairie   falcon   falls   into   the  water   and   is 
drowned.     Coyote,  the  prairie  falcon's  uncle,  knows  of  his  nephew's  death 
by  his  heart  trying  to  leave  his  body.     The  two  boys  show  him  where  the 
prairie  falcon  fell  into  the  water.     Coyote  dives  down.     Coming  to  seven 
trails  he  learns  by  means  of  his  tobacco  which  to  follow.     He  comes  to  a 
house  where  he  finds  a  man  who  is  being  burnt  for  fuel.     The  prairie  falcon 
is  there.    Coyote  takes  him  away  and  restores  him  to  life. 

41.  GitanemuTc   Shoshonean.     A   woman   and  her   daughter   live   alone. 
Game  is  left  at  their  door.    After  a  time  the  girl  gives  birth  to  twins.    She 
does  not  see  her  husband.     Coyote  comes  there  when  the  girl  is  away.     He 
sends  the  old  woman  to  get  water  in  an  openwork  basket  and  steals  the 
children.     He  brings  them  up.     The  panther,  who  is  their  father,   cannot 
find  them.     The  boys  kill   deer.     Coyote  has  warned  them   against  their 
father.     They  meet  him.     He  hides  and  Coyote  comes.     The  panther  kills 
him.     Then  he  kills  Coyote's  wife  and  children. 


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